ESPN has unveiled FACTS, a new generative AI-powered avatar that is being tested with SEC Nation to help foster engagement, provide data and insights on complex sports analytics and target new audiences.
The technology, which remains in the research and development phase with integration timing still to be determined, will pull from ESPN Analytics data, including the Football Power Index (FPI), player and team statistics and schedules. FACTS is built on NVIDIA Omniverse, using its ACE microservices, and integrates with Azure OpenAI for language processing and ElevenLabs for text-to-speech.
“FACTS is designed to test innovations out in the market and create an outlet for ESPN Analytics’ data to be accessible to fans in an engaging and enjoyable segment,” ESPN/SEC Network coordinating producer Baron Miller said in a news release. “It complements our journalists and on-air talent, providing additional insights.”
The avatar was unveiled during ESPN’s fourth annual EDGE innovation conference in New York City, which featured panel discussions with network executives and leaders from companies like Accenture, Meta and the NFL.
“There are ways for us as an enterprise to really benefit from AI. And don’t get me wrong, AI is disruptive, but I see it as disruptive in a good way and kind of pushing the sports fan experience forward. I do not see this as displacing jobs,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said during opening remarks at the conference.
In addition to FACTS, ESPN is using generative AI to produce text game recap stories of select sporting events, which will appear on ESPN digital platforms such as ESPN.com and the ESPN app.
“We’re able to create highlights at scale. What I mean by that is, highlights that maybe we would not be able to present to the sports fan around more niche sports, because it’s not really positive return on investment for us to go out and hire a bunch more people to clip these highlights,” Pitaro added. “Now we have many more highlights because of AI game recaps.”
Additionally, Pitaro noted that AI is being used for audio-to-text in order to create closed captioning and has previously teased the idea of SportsCenter potentially leveraging AI to offer sports fans more personalization.
The developments around ESPN’s use of AI come as the company has launched a new Office of Technology Enablement, which will be led by Walt Disney Studios’ chief technology officer Jamie Voris.
The OTE initiative is designed to ensure that Disney’s exploration, adoption and use of AI and mixed reality is “aligned, strategic and responsible,” and meets the company’s goals and values. It will also clarify and simplify processes to enable the company’s teams to drive outcomes with “greater agility, velocity and consistency.”
“Transparency is really important. We want to make sure that we’re explaining to the sports fan what we’re doing, we want to make sure our employees understand what we’re doing and how we’re handling artificial intelligence — and we are doing that today, but we will make sure as we move forward that we maintain our human core,” Pitaro said Thursday.
In addition to its AI-related projects, ESPN is preparing to launch a fully direct-to-consumer version of the platform in early fall 2025, which will package the network’s sports programming with fantasy sports integrations, enhanced statistics, betting features and e-commerce. Disney+ will launch an ESPN tile within the service on Dec. 4.
