Wimbledon opens the door to AI invasion

Tradition-bound Wimbledon will crack the door open for artificial intelligence at this summer’s edition by using AI to produce visual highlight packages.

London’s Daily Telegraph broke the news on Wednesday with less than a fortnight to go before the July 3 start of the Championships.

And club officials stayed decidedly non committal on the possibility that cost-efficient computer ships might be able to someday replace human match commentary.

With a longtime tech partnership with IBM expanding each summer’s tournament edition, Wimbledon is well-placed to take the next steps with plenty of corporate hand-holding available to make sure all goes smoothly.

“I see AI as very much complementing the human element, rather than replacing,” IBM official Kevin Farrar said.

“You can’t replace John McEnroe doing commentary, that human element always needs to be there. It’s very much supplementing and complementing.

“For Wimbledon, it’s about providing commentary in the future on matches that don’t currently have human commentary – like the seniors, juniors, wheelchair (matches).”

Host broadcaster the BBC had nothing to tell the newspaper about any future commentary planning.

The highlight packages which are released worldwide and showcased on the Wimbledon website are said to be benefitting from machine learning to provide a stylistically correct package at an event which still uses the terms “ladies” and “gentlemen” to describe players.

A club official assured that while chair umpires are safe from replacement by machines for now, the clock could be ticking on linespeople.

The ATP has already made the decision to rely on machines from the start of the 2025 men’s season.

“You’re right that line calling technology has changed,” the official said. 

“Who’s to say what might happen in the future. Obviously we’ve seen what’s going on with announcements in the ATP for their plans, and things like that will be considered in the future.

“I think the players are used to both systems.”