And in the future should I no longer be allowed to listen to such people? That’s my first thought when I landed on my tablet while streaming the Olympic badminton finals live. I actually wanted to watch badminton on TV, but the public broadcaster NHK showed diving and baseball instead of badminton. The quality of the streaming is 1A. I can choose between three modes: the original soundscape, an English commentary and a robot voice.
Robot voice?
I get curious. Do they in Japan have no badminton experts at NHK even though the number 1 in the world is Japanese? The voice sounds like Susi’s. This is what I call the voice that reliably guides me through unknown cities at home using the navigator. The only difference. The robot voice in badminton speaks Japanese. I can’t stand it for more than a few seconds. I dread. Is this the future of journalism? Or does it only happen in robot crazy Japan? The exciting question will be whether algorithms will also write complex analyzes in the distant future. And does a robot manage to show compassion when it has to interview an athlete who has to bury his Olympic dream because of a broken leg in a competition? I don’t want to imagine the future any further.
So back to the present, especially badminton. This is definitely “my” sport. I was (more modestly) more active, I was a trainer and I am an official in the fastest racquet sport in the world, where speeds of over 400 km / h are reached. Nobody from Italy qualified this time. South Tyroleans have never been there. The chances that a South Tyrolean badminton player will serve for the first time in Paris in 2024 are significantly greater than those that the game will be commented on by a robot. Luckily!
mk
