AI, Cloud Aim to Enhance the U.S. Open Fan Experience

The decision led to sweeping changes to almost every aspect of the competition, from playing matches with electronic line calling to having athletes use food-ordering apps for meal deliveries to their hospitality suites at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. However, the absence of fans immediately presented a problem for some of the USTA's recent AI projects. Last year, for instance, the USTA worked with International Business Machines Corp. to introduce a number of AI-powered additions to the tournament, including machine learning algorithms that rapidly compose broadcast highlight reels based on crowd reaction. "June 17th was really a pivotal moment, a lot of the solutions that we had in the pipeline were no longer going to be viable," said Kristi Kolski, marketing program director for IBM's sports and entertainment partnerships unit. "No crowd, no roar, no AI highlights."