At CES 2025, VideoLAN, the organization behind the widely popular open-source VLC media player, previewed an innovative new feature: AI-powered offline subtitles. This capability enables real-time subtitle generation and translation without requiring an internet connection, marking a major milestone in accessibility and convenience for media consumption.
Local AI Subtitling for Over 100 Languages
Jean-Baptiste Kempf, President of VideoLAN, shared a demo of the feature on X (formerly Twitter).
The subtitles are generated locally, ensuring privacy and removing the need for cloud services. The feature also offers real-time translation into more than 100 languages, making it a versatile tool for global users.
The technology behind this innovation likely leverages Whisper, an open-source neural network by OpenAI specializing in speech recognition.
While the demo showcased the feature’s potential, VideoLAN has yet to announce a timeline for its public release.
VLC automatic subtitles generation and translation based on local and open source AI models running on your machine working offline, and supporting numerous languages!
Demo can be found on our #CES2025 booth in Eureka Park. pic.twitter.com/UVmgT6K4ds— VideoLAN (@videolan) January 8, 2025
A Milestone for VLC
This announcement follows VLC’s recent achievement of 6 billion downloads and over 500 million monthly active users. The addition of AI-driven subtitles aligns with VideoLAN’s mission to deliver cutting-edge, user-focused features while maintaining its open-source ethos.
Stay Updated
While users await the feature’s rollout, VLC’s latest version can be downloaded here.
Source(s): VideoLAN via X, LinkedIn