A digital avatar may soon join the talent lineup on ESPN’s college football show “SEC Nation.” Called FACTS, the AI-generated character was developed at the ESPN Edge Innovation Center as “a way to help foster engagement and educate fans on complex sports analytics,” according to ESPN. The avatar was unveiled last week at the 4th Annual ESPN Edge Conference. Built on Nvidia’s Omniverse platform, using the company’s ACE microservices, FACTS integrates with Azure OpenAI for natural language processing and ElevenLabs for text-to-speech integration.

“FACTS is still in the research and development period with ‘SEC Nation,’” which has been testing the potential addition to the show, ESPN notes on its Front Row news site. The post explains that “timing is still being discussed.”

While the television debut of FACTS has yet to be scheduled, “considering the quick rate of AI adoption across the world of media, we don’t expect we’ll have to wait long,” writes TechRadar.

“SEC Nation” is “the perfect opportunity to introduce a friendly AI-generated analyst to help educate children and adults alike” on the ins and outs of college football, suggests TechRadar.

The model fueling FACTS has been trained on ESPN Analytics data, including the Football Power Index (FPI), player and team statistics, and schedules.

“ESPN hasn’t showcased FACTS in action,” TechRadar points out, adding that “the company has already used generative AI to create recaps of sports matches. However, the AI recaps have come under scrutiny for errors.”

The Wrap reports that ESPN’s unveiling of FACTS is part of a mandate from its parent, The Walt Disney Company, to integrate the latest technology, including AI. The Wrap reports that ESPN is establishing an Office of Technology Enablement to be headed by Walt Disney Studios CTO Jamie Voris.”

“The OTE initiative is designed to ensure that Disney’s exploration, adoption and use of AI and mixed reality is ‘aligned, strategic and responsible,’ and meets the company’s goals and values. It will also clarify and simplify processes to enable the company’s teams to drive outcomes with ‘greater agility, velocity and consistency,’” The Wrap writes.