We’ve just received this press release from MTB World Series organisers Warner Brothers Discovery. We’ve checked, and it’s not April Fool’s Day. Are you ready? There is random bold text, there is Artificial Intelligence, the promise of enhanced experiences for viewers, and a partnership with Amazon. There is even the word ‘leveraged’.
Are you sure you’re ready? Then read on. And if you can still string sentences together after reading it, please head to the comments and tell us what you think.
WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY LAUNCHES GENERATIVE AI-POWERED CYCLING CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM IN COLLABORATION WITH AWS
New AI technology platform transforms storytelling capabilities for WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series coverage, enhancing the viewer experience through data-driven insights
4thApril 2025| Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports Europe today announces the launch ofCycling Central Intelligence (CCI), an innovative generativeAI-powered platform developed in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), that transforms how mountain bike events are brought to viewers worldwide. The platform debuts at the2025 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series season opener in Araxá, Minas Gerais (Brazil) this weekend, marking asignificant advancement in sports broadcasting technology.
As part of this initiative,AWS becomes the Official Cloud Infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning Providerfor the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series, supporting WBD’s mission to further enhance on-screen experiences for mountain bike’s global fan base.
“What makes CCI truly revolutionary is how it enhances and complements the human expertise that makes sports broadcasting special,”said Chris Ball, VP, Cycling Events at WBD Sports.“Our commentators and producers bring unmatched levels of experience and passion for the sport, and through our partnership with AWS, CCI ensures they can expertly craft the compelling stories and insights that our viewers love and that will keep them engaged.
“This collaboration represents a significant step forward in our ongoing commitment to innovation in sports broadcasting,”Ball continued. “By combining cutting-edge AI technology with our leading production expertise, we’re setting new standards for how mountain bike events are brought to life for viewers around the globe.”
“AWS is helping Warner Bros. Discovery enhance the art of sports storytelling through the practical uses of generative AI,“said Samira Panah Bakhtiar, General Manager of Media & Entertainment, Games, and Sports at AWS.“This collaboration showcases how AWS’ generative AI services can amplify human expertise. By handling time-consuming research and data synthesis tasks, CCI frees up WBD’s talented commentary teams to focus on their passion and ability to capture the excitement of live sports.”
The CCI platform leverages advanced generative AI capabilities of Amazon Bedrock and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 on AWS to create aunified knowledge base that processes and analyzes hundreds of documents about riders and events, along with vast databases of results, race times, and athletic performance data.
This comprehensive system enables commentators and production teams toaccess information through natural language queries, dramaticallyreducing research timeand enablingmore engaging, data-driven storytelling. Working backwards from the needs of its broadcasting teams, WBD Sports Europe collaborated with teams at AWS to envision CCI, develop a proof-of-concept, and build the solution.
CCI’s technical architecture carefullybalances AI capabilities with human expertise.The platform utilizes Amazon Textract for document processing, Amazon Translate forbreaking down language barriersacross international content, and Amazon Comprehend fororganizing and structuring information. Amazon Bedrock integrates with these services while ensuringbroadcasting professionals maintain complete control over the storytelling process.
The platformwill continue to evolve throughout the season, with plans to incorporate additional features that will enable WBD’s commentators and production teams to serve mountain bike fans with the best possible live content and viewing experiences.
The2025 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Seriesbegins inAraxá, Minas Gerais (Brazil) this weekendwith the first of 16 rounds. Live and on-demand coverage of every race is available throughWBD’s channelsand platforms includingEurosport(Europe) andTNT Sports(UK & Ireland) with streaming onMaxanddiscovery+, as well as around the world through WBD’s broadcast partners. More information on where to watch the opening round of the 2025 season is availablehere.
Feel the need to recover from that? Here’s an interview with Rob Warner, where he talks about the preparation that goes into being a great commentator.
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that made my head hurt reading that -still no idea what it;s supposed to do.
No Rob Warner and more Jeff Bezos, just what we need.
Tenner says the press release was written by AI as well.
So what they are saying is that their presenters & staff aren’t knowledgeable about the Mountain Biking & can’t be arsed to do the research, so we will blag everyone that we are using AI and make it sound high tech. Waffle, waffle, blah, blah smells like bull….
Could you summarize please Hannah? 😀
Lovely.
Luckily I won’t be watching that shite. Well, I want to watch world cups, but not the £31/month greedy barsteward money grab coverage.
I understand quite a lot of that press release – even the bits that have descended into a game of buzzword bingo.
Translation is no positive meaningful changes for fans of the various series, particularly those who don’t have thirty quid a month spare to watch it.
So they’re using AI to help the commentator during the race with information about the riders…….
Couldn’t the commentator just do their homework – like Rob Warner did…..
So is this why the price to watch is extortionate – because they need to pay Bezos a load of cash for some more AI bollox…….
So, it sounds like the commentators will be able to look at a computer and say ‘Here’s No.16, Joe Bloggs… …who came 14th last time at this venue, is currently 12th in the series. He has faced the other front runner 12 times, of which six have come down to a sprint, and of which he’s won four. His favourite colour is yellow and he loves Haribo fizzy crocodiles.’ Kind of thing… I think.
Somewhat ironically, I used AI to give me a simpler version of that release, this is what it said:
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports Europe has launched a new AI-powered platform called Cycling Central Intelligence (CCI) in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This platform is designed to improve how mountain bike events are broadcasted to viewers. It will debut at the 2025 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Brazil.
Key Points:
CCI uses AI to help commentators and producers tell better stories by providing them with detailed data and insights about the riders and events.
AWS is providing the cloud infrastructure and AI technology for this platform.
Benefits: The platform makes it easier for commentators to access information quickly, allowing them to focus on delivering exciting and engaging coverage.
Technology: CCI uses various AWS services to process documents, translate languages, and organize information, ensuring that human experts still control the storytelling.
Overall, this collaboration aims to enhance the viewing experience for mountain bike fans by combining advanced AI technology with human expertise.
I know I’m thick, but that statement was a hard read. At 30 odd quid a month I’d already passed. I don’t know who would be swung by the inclusion of AI.
Rob had plenty of facts in his head and live in his headphones from behind scenes producers. The skill is knowing what to use when. which he is expert at and Rik is not.
This appears to be one less research production staff needed.
A tenner says 2026 season will have an AI ‘Assistant’ commentator who talks all the stats….
Expect some random AI based hallucinations in the commentary:
“Race leader lost a leg in an unfortunate accident last season, but fortunately has grown a new one"
I’m sure I speak for many when I ask, “what the **** are they smoking at WBD?”
Read it, read it again. Still clueless as to what it actually means or is.
I think it says, “we won’t prepare properly or learn anything beforehand about the racing or get bogged down with unnecessary facts… because we have AI…. yay! This means we can talk about anything, then at the correct moment use AI to add in a fizzy crocodile fact or whatever the machine tells us"
Is there any crap that these tosspots won’t impose on a previously engaging broadcast sport?
But, as many have said, it’s academic to me because they’ve already priced me out. So, frankly, who cares?
Its just riding bikes around a field, isn’t it.
I think Cycling Intelligence App would have been a better name ?
How long before jokers start posting random ridiculous stories on the internet about WC riders that the AI “learns" from and is subsequently incorporated into commentary?
And one of the GMBN nobbers who incorporates it signs off in true Ron Burgundy style…
“Go **** yourselves, mountain bikers".
Which isn’t a million miles away from WBD’s vision for the sports in any case from what I can tell.
🤣🤣🤣
I feel like I know less after reading that than I did before.