The Peacock streaming platform by NBCUniversal is using artificial intelligence to recreate the voice of legendary sports broadcaster Al Michaels to present personalized daily Olympic recaps for consumers. The first-of-its-kind effort was unveiled earlier this week by the company and will include a customized flow of highlights surrounding the events from the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Dan Le Batard relayed on Thursday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz that Michaels used the words “astonishing, amazing [and] frightening” to describe what the company was able to create.

Michaels, who has been in an emeritus role with NBC Sports since his departure from Sunday Night Football following the 2021 season, is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished sports broadcasters of all time. For the last two seasons, he has called Thursday Night Football games on Amazon’s Prime Video alongside color commentator Kirk Herbstreit and sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung.

Michaels has covered nine Olympic Games in his broadcasting career with ABC Sports and NBC Sports, including the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, N.Y. It was there where Michaels called the United States’ men’s ice hockey team victory over the Soviet Union en route to a gold medal win. As Le Batard provided his opinion on the matter, he discussed what he has read about what Google is doing with the technology.

“At this point, you’re really used to feeling like your devices are listening to you and manipulating you because the algorithms are such that they’ve got a lot of information about you, and I think all of this is well beyond frightening,” Le Batard said. “If this is what has happened over the last five years of artificial learning, I can’t imagine what the next 20 years are going to look like as hedge funds and corporate greedy monsters end up grabbing all of our information because it’s such currency, and then using it against us to manipulate us because I already feel like I’m being manipulated by our devices.”

Show contributor Jessica Smetana wondered why Michaels agreed to allow the company to do this in the first place if consent was needed. If NBCUniversal is paying him to use an A.I.-generated version of his voice, she wondered why he is not doing the voiceover himself.

“We should get a soundboard, Chris, for when Stugotz is to go do a little bit of God Bless Football later in the show to see if we could create – the reason Stugotz is safe is because we haven’t figured out a way to create artificial stupidity,” Le Batard said. “We could do it with intelligence, but I think Stugotz is going to be difficult to recreate in any form. He’s going to confound the robot.”

After listening to a recording of how Michaels’ voice sounds being recreated by artificial intelligence, Smetana conveyed that she would think it would be better to have Michaels speaking in actuality. Le Batard believed that the recording sounded “stiffed and scratched” and that the actual Michaels would have used better words.

“It’s still the primitive form of whatever it is that this is going to become 10 and 15 years from now when we replace everybody with the robots because you can tell, there is no emotion in what’s being said there,” Le Batard explained. “It sounds like it’s being printed on a factory line by a machine, but it sounds like him.”

Co-host Jon “Stugotz” Weiner was not impressed and implored A.I. to do better in the work of accurately trying to replicate Michaels’ voice. Le Batard emphasized that it would be difficult to recreate emotion in an artificial manner more so than intelligence. Later in the segment, show contributor Jeremy Taché questioned if Michaels would call the Olympics in perpetuity since his voice is being recreated in A.I. form.

“There’s probably a dozen, at least, people on the Olympic broadcast that would have happily taken this role,” Smetana said, “and so that I think is where the bummer is because you can get the next Al Michaels if you give the opportunity to someone to become that.”

After losing three consecutive matchups to the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers hoisted the Stanley Cup following a Game 7 victory. The Panthers officially secured the first championship in the history of the organization, a means of celebration throughout South Florida and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region. Dan Le Batard, however, understands that it may not be the case beyond the geographic locale. The program received a message from a user on X who stated that it sucked to see Le Batard and the cast of the show happy.

Le Batard has been discussing the Stanley Cup Final over the last several weeks on his program, which has included several storylines germane to the show itself. Greg Cote, show contributor and columnist for the Miami Herald, wrote a column earlier in the month classifying Oilers star forward Connor McDavid as an overrated player. Although McDavid and the Oilers were unable to defeat the Panthers, he became the second skater in NHL history to lose the Stanley Cup Final but still win the Conn Smythe Trophy, which is given to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a whole.

“I believe it is something that the rest of North America feels whenever someone other than your fanbase is celebrating anything,” Le Batard said. “The internet is a wildly divided place. I don’t believe that people are happy for each other on the internet, and I believe that more people would be listening to this show by double today if the Panthers had lost; that that would attract more people in today’s North America than happiness.”

Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, the co-host of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, expressed that the only people who are happy for fans of the Panthers are those of the rival Tampa Bay Lightning. In fact, the organization shared a message of congratulations for the Panthers on social media Monday night.

“I don’t believe that the fans of Tampa Bay were actually happy for Florida,” Le Batard responded. “That is simply the organization of Tampa trying to be magnanimous. I don’t believe there is anybody in hockey today anywhere outside of a 50-mile radius of here that’s happy for the sport of hockey today because of what happened last night.”

Several members of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz shared their experiences watching the game on social media as the team claimed victory and was awarded the Stanley Cup. Meadowlark Media producer Roy Bellamy recorded a segment for The Hockey Show inside of Amerant Bank Arena as the team was celebrating on the ice. During Tuesday’s edition of the show, Cote took a victory lap in Miami, presumably for being exonerated after his opinion on McDavid gained national attention and was being considered a potential jinx.

Cote revealed that he is going to post a column on Tuesday about the last couple of weeks, including the drama surrounding his McDavid take. Weiner believed that Cote should not write another column, instead using his original writing as his final word on the topic. While Cote acknowledged that it essentially could be what he ends up writing on Tuesday, the column following a Stanley Cup victory needed to be celebratory and recognizing the achievement.

“You were wrong,” Le Batard said. “You’re the best kind of right, which is you’re wrong.”

“No, no, I disagree,” Cote replied.

Dan Dakich had a strong reaction to something Stephen A. Smith said recently on First Take. Smith and Doug Gottlieb had a war of words after Smith said black head coaches had contacted him complaining about LeBron James doing a podcast with JJ Redick while his black head coach, Darvin Ham, was on the hot seat.

Smith had said, “Black coaches called a Black commentator to complain about a Black superstar doing a podcast while his Black head coach was on the hot seat before he ultimately lost the damn job. What does that have to do with white folks? Some things are none of your damn business.”

During his Don’t @ Me show on OutKick.com, Dakich did not hold back on his opinion of Smith and what he said.

“Stephen A. Smith told white people, ‘Stay out of it, it’s black people’s business,’ with regard to Darvin Ham being on the hot seat and black coaches allegedly texting and getting ahold of Smith,” Dakich said. “I say ‘allegedly’ because he is clearly a liar. All you gotta do is follow Jason Whitlock and Stephen A. Smith’s bulls**t basketball career and you know Stephen A. Smith is the Joe Biden of television, but he alleges that coaches, black coaches, are mad that a white guy, JJ Redick is doing a podcast with a black guy, LeBron James.

“It upset coaches, black coaches, because their black brother, Darvin Ham was on the hot seat. Well, that’s fine, I get it. And if it happened, so what? They’re upset. Hey, go over in the corner and be upset. But Stephen A. Smith is now taking it to another level. Stephen A. Smith is now saying, ‘Hey man, it’s a black thing. He was upset because Doug Gottlieb on FOX called him a race-baiter. Well, Stephen A. Smith is a race baiter that’s all he has. He has nothing else. He has shown he knows nothing about basketball by being on NBA Countdown, absolutely no personality for a real show. Sure, he’s fine on his yelling and screaming show where he can dominate a guest, act like he knows something, talk over people, but he knows zip.

Dakich talked about having Smith on his Indianapolis radio show once and said he cut him off and ended the interview early.

“He was just yelling and screaming and talking. I get it, that’s his schtick and he’s gonna make a lot of money. But the whole idea of ‘White folk stay out of this’ is complete bulls**t. Then Stephen A. Smith, you stay your ass out of Caitlin Clark, and all of your African American colleagues, stay your ass outta little white girl stuff. Imagine how that would go over if somebody said it. ‘Hey Stephen stay your ass outta hockey, stay your ass outta anything where white people are involved. Stay your ass outta most things.’

“How about, white people stay your ass outta listening to Stephen A. Smith and paying attention to Stephen A. Smith. I put a ban on Stephen A. Smith, but this really pissed me off. Because I can’t stand racism. I just can’t stand it. And I think all of the people like Stephen A. Smith are deep down incredibly racist.”