If we can’t escape the continually expanding AI headlines, then neither can you. This time, at least, it’s YouTube getting involved in 2023’s keyword and actually using it for some good. With the help of Aloud – a company that specializes in AI-powered dubbing and pulled from Google’s Area 120 incubator – the platform is turning its talents to helping creators to dub their videos in other languages, YouTube announced on Thursday, according to The Verge.
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The idea is a stroke of brilliance from YouTube. While the platform’s larger creators such as Mr. Beast already pay third-party linguists to dub videos in a variety of languages, lesser-known (and poorer) creators have no such freedom. Allowing even a basic AI to handle the job could, theoretically, garner a larger audience for creators.
It’s a win-win for everyone involved. YouTube’s creators can attract more eyeballs to their videos, thus bringing some more money from ad revenue. YouTube, on the other hand, gains more attention on the site as a whole.
Room for growth
According to a statement made to The Verge, YouTube is testing the tool out with “hundreds” of YouTubers. A company spokesperson, Jessica Gibby, says that Aloud only supports English, Spanish, and Portuguese for the time being, though Amjad Hanif says there is “more to come.”
The tech is rather simple to use, too – judging by the video above. According to Aloud’s website, it’ll first give users a transcription of their video, allowing them to make any changes the AI might’ve mistaken (this is AI, after all). From there, it’ll get to translating and dubbing the video, which could then be found by going onto a video, clicking the gear icon, and then ‘Audio track’. Check out the Spanish dub of this video to get an idea of how it all sounds.
Considering Aloud’s infancy (it was prematurely pulled from Google’s incubator), its scope isn’t all that far-reaching. Yet. YouTube has plans to “make translated audio tracks sound like the creator’s voice, with more expression, and lip sync,” says Hanif. Yeah, that doesn’t sound terrifying at all, even if it is just a little bit cool. As for when that’ll happen, expect to see the new features sometime in 2024.
