It is difficult for a person to pronounce the names of 20,000 football players.
Artificial intelligence is used in the development of the EA Sports FC football simulator to recreate the voice of one of the commentators. This was revealed by the British sports journalist Guy Mowbray himself in an interview with the BBC.
Mowbray, who joined the series starting with EA Sports FC 24, explained that recording commentary for a large-scale sports project with a constantly updated roster of players has become an almost weekly routine for him — \"almost every week from November to early July\".
One of the most time-consuming tasks is voicing the names of more than 20,000 football players, and each name must be pronounced in different intonations — when receiving a pass, shooting at the goal, scoring a goal, and other game situations. To facilitate this process, EA, with the commentator's permission, uses AI to replicate his voice and record some of the names.
Mowbray emphasizes that more complex and lengthy lines cannot be entrusted to algorithms. According to him, the phrases should sound natural and match his personal style. For example, in a situation where a team crosses the center line of the field, but the outcome of the attack is not yet clear, he might say: \"Oh, a promising attack, what will they come up with next\". At the same time, up to ten different versions of such a line are required — and he comes up with them all himself.
