Everything you need to know about the tech at the Paris Olympics

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics are about to begin, with the first events kicking off on July 24th and competition ending on August 11th. (You can see the full schedule on the Olympics website.) If you’re a Peacock subscriber, you’ll be able to watch live coverage of every event and take advantage of features like enhanced multiview and, um, daily recaps featuring an AI-generated version of Al Michaels’ voice.

Here’s our coverage of the biggest tech stories out of the Olympics.

• NBC’s Paris Olympics coverage will have AI-generated recaps, split screen, and more

  

  Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

  The Paris 2024 Olympics are nearly here. The opening ceremony starts on July 26th, and this year’s events run through August 11th. On the main NBC channel, you can see hours of live morning and afternoon coverage of events like swimming and gymnastics ahead of a three-hour primetime recap, to go along with livestreams of every sport and event and full event replays on Peacock.

  One key aspect of NBC’s Peacock coverage will be an Olympics hub, which spotlights major events happening live, lets you browse by sport and by “star athlete,” offers an interactive schedule, and includes an up-to-date count of medal standings.

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• An AI version of Al Michaels will deliver Olympic recaps on Peacock

  

  Photo by Cooper Neill / Getty Images

  Legendary sportscaster Al Michaels is going to give daily, personalized recaps of the Paris Olympics on Peacock — well, an AI-generated Al Michaels voice will. In practice, the effect is a lot like hearing a sports announcer’s voice in a video game like Madden, except it’s spitting out lines about real-life sports, which, in this case, means custom Olympics coverage.

  Here’s how it works. To set up what NBC is calling “Your Daily Olympic Recap” in the Peacock app, you’ll provide your name (the AI voice can welcome the “majority” of people by their first name, NBC says in a press release) and pick up to three types of sports that are interesting to you and up to two types of highlights (for example, “Top Competition” or “Viral & Trending Moments”). Then, each morning, you’ll get your Michaels-led rundown.

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  Athletes sound warning about extreme heat at Summer Olympics

  

  New Zealand’s Marcus Daniell (TOP) and Michael Venus compete against USA’s Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren during their Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games men’s doubles tennis match for the bronze medal at the Ariake Tennis Park in Tokyo on July 30th, 2021.

  Photo by Vincenzo Pinto / AFP via Getty Images

  Athletes are raising concerns about how extreme heat might affect the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, according to a new report. They’re worried that soaring temperatures pose serious health risks to competitors and spectators, not to mention their performance suffering.

  Average temperatures during the months when the Summer Olympics are typically held have risen by more than 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since the last time the Games were held in Paris in 1924, according to the report. Every fraction of a degree of difference can have an impact, considering even a 0.5 degree Celsius rise in core body temperature can increase a person’s heartbeat up to 10 beats per minute. In a worst-case scenario, that can lead to heat exhaustion that could worsen into heatstroke without any intervention.

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