Wimbledon diary: AI mishaps, clippings and reaction-speed testers

Wimbledon’s much-hyped experiment in using generative AI to “deliver compelling, insight-driven storytelling at scale” at this year’s championships got off to a sticky start on Monday, when claims including that Emma Raducanu is the British No 1 were widely ridiculed on social media.

It may just be a coincidence – an algorithm should be able to take a gentle ribbing, after all – but the subsequent “insights” provided by IBM’s preview-bot have felt increasingly cautious ever since. “[Iga] Swiatek is favoured in the match against [Petra] Martic” is not exactly putting your virtual neck on the block when the world No 1 is priced up at 1-33 with the bookies.

So fair play to the bot for a very punchy opinion on Thursday’s Battle of the Brits between Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie. While the bookmakers were unanimous in making Draper, the British No 1, a red-hot favourite at around 1-3 – equating to around a 76% chance of the win – the AI preview suggested that Draper should be the outsider, and sided instead with Norrie as having a 54% chance of success. Whether it had backed up its opinion with hard cash – or possibly crypto – is unclear.

McNicol’s museum

After the rain delays on Tuesday and Wednesday, the action on the fourth day unfolded in glorious sunshine, but all weathers come alike to Robert McNicol, the AELTC’s official historian, and his team, who spend championships fortnight overseeing the subterranean Kenneth Ritchie Wimbledon Library, which is part of the museum. The library was founded with 20 books in 1977 by the late Alan Little MBE and has since grown to become the world’s most comprehensive collection of tennis publications, with more than 6,000 books alongside a wealth of newspapers, magazines, programmes and clippings. It is open for walk-ins – assuming, of course, that you have a valid ticket for the tennis – throughout the fortnight, and researchers and fans alike can apply to access the collection all year round by emailing library@aeltc.com.

How are your reactions?

The reach of AI at this year’s tournament also extends to the IBM-sponsored reaction-speed tester opposite Court 14, a whack-a-mole-type game which counts the number of randomly-lit buttons you can press in 30 seconds. This 59-year-old reporter’s score of 24 was in the “top 51.4%” according to the chatbot – or bang-average, in layperson’s terms – and described, almost poetically, as being “like a giraffe trying to play twister, all arms and legs but still managing to hold your own.” The world record, apparently, is an astonishing 58, a mark that even the mighty Novak Djokovic could struggle to match.

Bryson in the box

Politicians have, for obvious reasons, been notable by their absence from the Royal Box this week, and once again, the guest list was studiously non-partisan on Thursday. But there was at least one American on Independence Day, for all that Iowa-born Bill Bryson has spent most of his adult life as an adopted British treasure.