- Prime Video has started testing AI dubbing on select titles
- 12 licensed movies and shows will be dubbed in English and Spanish
- The pilot program will also use local human experts for quality control
Prime Video is testing a new AI-assisted feature for dubbing its movies and shows to make its content accessible to even more of its over 200 million strong global subscriber base.
Starting on Wednesday (March 5), some Prime Video subscribers will be able to see new English and Latin American Spanish dubbing for 12 of its licensed movies and shows, including El Cid: La Leyenda, Mi Mamá Lora and Long Lost.
The streaming service announced that it will initially trial the new pilot program only on these select titles, which suggests that more of the best Prime Video movies and best Prime Video shows will eventually get access to the feature if it proves successful.
Indeed, Raf Soltanovich, the VP of technology at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said in a statement alongside the announcement that "AI-aided dubbing is only available on titles that do not have dubbing support", but that Prime Video is "eager to explore a new way to make series and movies more accessible and enjoyable".
As part of the test phase of the new AI feature, Amazon says that it will take a hybrid approach that will still require local language experts to review the automated dubbing to ensure that it has been translated accurately.
Which streaming services are experimenting with AI?
The new dubbing feature is the latest AI-powered tool that Amazon is trialing on Prime Video. Last year, it rolled out a new AI-based recommendation system for creating more personalized content suggestions as well as 'X-Ray' for recapping movies and shows.
It's an area that's seeing a lot of interest among the best streaming services. For example, Disney's ESPN also started using generative AI for recaps, but received backlash due to translation errors. Despite this, it's pushing ahead with a new AI-powered football analyst for live commentary.
As for AI dubbing, there's increasing experimentation. In January, a licensing startup called Lumiere Ventures jumped onboard the AI dubbing bandwagon with an AI speech company called ElevenLabs for the international release of the Lionsgate movie Armor.
And while ElevenLabs' CEO Mati Staniszewsk did say that "AI doesn't replace the magic of human creativity", an increasing number of services are using it. YouTube was one of the earliest to adopt an AI-powered dubbing tool for video translation back in 2023.
However, not every streamer has had success with AI dubbing. For instance, Netflix received backlash in December 2024 over the dubbing of Norwegian disaster series La Palma with many taking to social media to complain about how terrible it looked.
Netflix AI mouth replacement on dubs looks terrible from r/netflix
That's surprising considering that only a couple of months earlier Netflix had announced how it was making non-English movies and shows better by starting to offer classes to voice actors involved in unscripted reality TV shows from South Korea.
Perhaps an approach that combines both would work best then, as utilizing the efficiency of AI to make quick work of a translation would of course save time, but employing language experts to review this seems to be still essential to ensure it's done effectively.
Considering Prime Video is using this hybrid approach for its AI dubbing pilot program, it might prove to be the most effective way of executing such a feature. Make sure to check back in with TechRadar to see what we make of the latest update once we've had a chance to test it out.
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