AI Golf Announcer's Debut Met With Criticism

The introduction of an artificial intelligence golf analyst, dubbed Duff Foreman, into the broadcast of the New Mexico Open has drawn criticism from viewers. The AI's performance was marred by awkward silences, factual inaccuracies, and stilted delivery during the three-day tournament held at Turtleback Mountain Golf & Resort and streamed on social media.

During one segment, human broadcasters Ryan Burr and Notah Begay III engaged Foreman, who appeared in a separate box on screen. When asked about the win probabilities for the leading players, Foreman remained silent for five seconds before responding. "Now, we are talking numbers," Foreman stated with a Scottish accent. "Blake Tomlinson is leading the pack with a win probability of about 11 percent, and he has a huge 34 percent chance to land in the top five. Right behind him you have Sean O’Hair at around 7.6 percent and Steven Chervony at 7.3 percent, both with a 27 percent probability of a top-five finish."

Another instance captured Foreman interrupting Burr mid-sentence. Foreman also made repeated errors in referring to scores, at one point stating a player was "8 under" and then adding redundant "minus 5 under" for another, and mispronouncing a player's name.

An X account attributed to Duff Foreman shared a video showing Burr and Begay offering seemingly scripted praise for the AI's contributions. "I really had a great time working with him," Begay said in the clip. "I thought he worked very well into the show. It was very seamless and I’m looking forward to sort of elaborating on his role within our broadcast because I thought he definitely added some value to what we’re doing and it was a lot of fun."

The X account for Foreman was created in March, with earlier posts showing a different visual and vocal presentation of the AI, unrelated to the New Mexico Open.