Often, we hear that AI-powered localization will give more creators access to an international audience. What holds them back at the moment is not maybe a content that’s only of local interest, or a lack of quality, but the language barrier.
Let’s look at this in more detail. Yes, there are the YouTubers who have a channel that they have created from scratch. Maybe just filmed on their phones, with little or no professional input, just really quirky and original, and/or just super interesting. Basically made for free (if you don’t count the time it took to make it). And maybe they have indeed a potentially wider audience. But they speak only English (or, lord forbid, something else!), and people who don’t speak their language cannot understand their content. Poor creators. They could benefit the world, or be famous, or both, but language is keeping them back.
Truthfully, a lot of the content on YouTube is really not dependent on competency in ANY language. I would argue that you can watch someone clean up abandoned front yards or slice open pimples without understanding what they’re saying. And if it’s not about truly understanding, but just about “you get what they’re saying”, there are already ways to localize that content for free. None of those tools are great, but again – it’s just about “you get what they’re saying”, just like google translate can be useful when you stand in a supermarket in Budapest trying to figure out which of the waters are still and which are sparkling.
It gets a bit absurd when you watch content creators whose original language is, say, German, who already produce their content in English to be more universally understood, whose videos are then auto-dubbed into German again. But again – those tools are free, and you get what you paid for.
Why do we (the localization industry, specifically, professional dubbers and subtitlers) tell them that they should be shelling out a multiple of what it took to create their channel for a good dub, or good subs? Sometimes that sounds suspiciously like my father-in-law when he said that the neighbor kids should pull up their pants. Or boomers insisting that their 20-something students should answer an email with an email, not a text. What right do we have to tell someone how to run their YouTube channel? It’s the old “that’s not how things are done around here”-argument. It’s patronizing at the least and colonialist at the worst.
Yes, YouTube’s auto-dub looks and sounds like crap. But I have no problem with that. The creators don’t want to make a big investment, and I have a choice as well. I can choose not to watch their videos. After all, I haven’t paid for them, either.
Where I do have a problem is when we look at anything beyond the garage-dwelling nerdy YouTuber with a fascination for something weird. When we look at videos that have not been shot on an iPhone (which in itself, by the way, isn’t cheap), or have, but then have been professionally edited. When we look at content that’s obviously popular enough to have attracted sponsorship. Most YouTubers or Instagrammers that you follow will tell you how much work it is to make their content look and feel professional. Social media is a full-time job. Many of those channels are produced by a team that gets paid. It’s THEN that I feel that we have a right to say, look. If you’re investing money and time into create a professional product, then it’s disrespectful at the very least (and stupid also, probably) to NOT invest into a professional localization.
Yes, AI is changing the localization landscape. But it hasn’t replaced professionals. It has split the market. What I take issue with isn’t AI-dubbing for infomercials, or YouTube channels, or even corporate videos. You get what you paid for, and your audiences will be the judge. What I take issue with is a professional actor saying, “AI can dub a Netflix series in 120 languages, sound like the original actor, move the lips to match.” (on Graham Lovelace’s excellent blog in GenAI)
No it can’t. It’s time that dubbers get into a conversation with the creators of all types of content. The dubbing industry doesn’t profit from condescending to the creator economy. And it certainly doesn’t profit from letting AI-dubbing get away with exaggerated claims.
