Artificial intelligence is seeping into Oracle Park. Its arrival will be gradual.
The San Francisco Giants announced Monday that they have entered into a multi-year partnership with artificial intelligence company ElevenLabs.
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On the first day of the partnership, their team, including the CEO, moved into the newly named ElevenLabs suite, located next to the lower press gallery. The suite has been reserved for Salesforce until Monday’s Giants game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Giants said in a statement that the partnership will “deploy AI voice and audio technology throughout the ballpark to enhance the fan experience.”
Exactly what that means has yet to be determined, said Giants Chief Information Officer Bill Schlough, who has been with the team for 28 years.
“This is completely new,” Schroff said. “We’re working with them to explore how their voice technology can help us from a business perspective.”
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That doesn’t mean Giants fans will get a full AI experience when they walk into Oracle Arena. But the opportunities presented by this partnership are wide-ranging.
ElevenLabs creates AI-rendered speech and translation. Its business has penetrated into the entertainment industry.
First lady Melania Trump used an artificial intelligence company to replicate her voice for the audiobook version of her autobiography, “Melania.”
The ElevenLabs website and mobile app features a database of AI-rendered celebrity voices that can be downloaded to read a variety of texts, such as audiobooks and articles. Sort of like an AI version of Cameo, the app lets you purchase personal videos of your favorite celebrities.
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Some of the AI voices available are those of deceased celebrities, including Jerry Garcia, Maya Angelou, Burt Reynolds, and Laurence Olivier.
Could the Giants do something similar with one of their late greats, broadcasters like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey or Ron Simmons? Shroff said that’s a tricky issue because it would require approval from the man’s estate and is currently not on the team’s radar.
Connect the MLB Ballpark Phone app to your Oracle Park game experience for even greater possibilities. One option is to use artificial intelligence to translate the stadium’s scoreboard content, broadcasts or performances into different languages - Korean, Spanish, etc.
The arrival of outfielder Lee Jung-hoo from the Korean Baseball Association brought a large Korean audience to the Giants. Shroff said that when the content production team produced a video of manager Tony Vitlow and shortstop Willie Adams visiting Lee in Korea during the offseason, a large portion of YouTube’s audience came from South Korea.
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“We have a huge following in Korea and we wear Giants uniforms every Saturday,” he said. “Being able to authentically translate all of our content into other languages… is one of their strengths. We really don’t have the ability to translate all of the content that we have into other languages, let alone in an authentic way.”
Other options they are discussing are opting out of music licensing hassles and creating AI-generated music during gameplay. Musically speaking, full AI could take away a lot of the fun of the game’s natural pauses. For example, the Giants sing a song of their choice during the seventh inning based on fan votes, and DJ Umami plays remixes of hit songs before and between games.
Shroff said the AI-generated music could be used for the Giants’ social media and content production, not just for the ballpark experience. Another idea being discussed is using the technology to translate closed captions or spoken words for viewers who are hearing-impaired or visually impaired through a baseball app.
ElevenLabs is based in New York, but it would be fitting to form an AI partnership with the San Francisco baseball team near the birthplace of the sport.
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“To my knowledge, this is the first partnership for ElevenLabs,” Schlough said. “I think we’re leading the way in this area of experimentation.”
This article was originally published on Giants believe deal with artificial intelligence company is smart decision and will expand fan experience at Oracle Park.
