In a statement released on Sep. 16 on the Luther Norse website, Luther College Athletics announced that they will be partnering with the AI company FanWord to “enhance how it shares the stories behind Norse Athletics.”
Christine Bjornstal, the athletic communications director and sports information director, oversees Norse highlights and publishes stories on the Luther Athletics website. As of now, she is the only one who does this. For the past few weeks, FanWord has been used to assist in that task.
With more than 500 student athletes and 24 varsity sports as One Team, Bjorstal and a few student workers have to keep up with every gameday statistic, score and notable events that are then written and published on the website.
“FanWord is essentially cutting our time,” says Bjornstal. “I’m not saying I’m using AI to do everything. I still have the ability with FanWord to go in and make edits. So a lot of what you see on the website, it still has my personal flair, while keeping us and Luther in a good light.”
According to their website, FanWord launched in 2019 as an AI powered writing tool for athletic organizations. Their products include the AI software FanWord Stories and FanWord Assist catered towards Division I schools, small schools and high schools. FanWord has partnered with over 100 schools and conferences across the nation, including the American Rivers Conference.
“The American Rivers Conference has a partnership with FanWord, and they presented to us at a couple of our sports information meetings,” Bjornstal says. “I saw the demo [and] I liked it originally. It was actually Megan Wilson, our athletic director, that really pushed it forward.”
Bjornstal says FanWord will be most beneficial in helping her to write student bios. These profiles are made for every student athlete at Luther and include an individual’s specific statistics based on their involvement with Luther Athletics. On the website under each sport’s roster, students can find information such as number of games played, individual statistics, achievements and awards attached to their name.
“It’s going to automate [the bios] in a way that I won’t be able to do as fast, especially this time of year when you’ve got your fall sports finishing up [and] winter sports coming in,” says Bjornstal. “It’s hard to get all those bios done right when you head into winter sports, so this will help speed that process up while still giving those kids a bio on the website.”
For Bjornstal, FanWord Assist is helping relieve the pressure of being the only one covering the whole of Luther Athletics.
“I think too, the responsibilities of sports information, it’s everything from game management, to social media, to photography, to doing videos. We have to be so much like a jack of all trades to do it well,” she says. “Is it perfect? No, but it helps me get the job done.”
Because FanWord is a relatively young company, it does have some limitations. As of now, FanWord’s AI software cannot yet digest information from “beta sports,” including golf, wrestling and swimming. Given this limitation however, Bjorstal says that she will share score sheets with FanWord developers in hopes that it will help teach the AI how to incorporate these sports into its software.
“I’ve met with them a few times and they’re very receptive to that and understand that there are lots of sports out there that still need to be covered,” says Bjornstal. “Some sports don’t even have an option on here, so a lot of that will still be manual. At the end of the day, AI isn’t helping me write it word for word. It’s just the start that allows me to finish my work quicker. It saves time on my end.”
Bjornstal says, “FanWord is not to replace journalism or communications or any of that. It’s just to help us get going and help us best represent who we are and maybe even tell some better stories that we couldn’t even think about before. So I’m excited to continue to use FanWord as we go through our first year with it. And I’m excited to test some things out, hopefully as it comes around.”
Luther College CHIPS reached out to student athletes for comment on the use of FanWord in Luther Athletics. The students who were contacted had little to no knowledge about the implementation of the AI software or how it was being used in Norse Athletics.
