At this year’s VidCon, YouTube announced that it’s testing an AI-powered dubbing tool to automatically dub creator’s videos. This dubbing tool is in partnership with Aloud, an AI-powered dubbing service, and is also a part of Google’s Area 120 startup incubator for experimental projects.
How does this dubbing tool work?
Google introduced Aloud last year. This tool translates the creator’s video using the original transcript and then produces dubs in different languages. According to co-founders Buddhika Kottahachchi and Sasakthi Abeysinghe, Aloud uses “advances” in audio separation, machine translation and speech synthesis to make the process of translation and production less time-consuming.
YouTube is currently testing the feature with a select few creators. Currently, the tool can dub videos in English, Spanish and Portuguese. According to Amjad Hanif, Vice President of Creator Projects, the company’s working on adding additional languages to the tool in the future.
An easier way to dub
This new AI-powered dubbing tool is a great addition to the multi-language audio tracks feature that YouTube launched early this year. YouTube’s dub video feature allows creators to upload a single video with different audio tracks instead of uploading separate videos with each translation. The audience can then view the videos in their primary language.
YouTube tested this feature with MrBeast, a popular content creator. According to him, this feature makes it a lot easier for his fans because “all the dubs are in one place, in one video.” Furthermore, using the tool yielded positive results, specifically adding more views to their videos.
YouTube’s collaboration with Aloud definitely makes dubbing more efficient and less costly for creators. We’ll have to see how it performs once it’s launched, and we are hoping it lives up to its promise.