AI: The next border in the dubbing?

Jacques Barreau, “Dean of Dubbing” y Vice President – Media & Interactive Entertainment de TransPerfect Media, reflect on this tribune about artificial intelligence and its possible applications in the dubbing industry, which should not be negative.

IA: These 2 letters are starting to scare To many of the people who are part of the dubbing community. Will automatic learning and a threat or support for dubbing professionals?

In this forum, we will talk about what AI is currently capable of achieving in terms of reproduction of voices and nuances, and we will see what this means not only for the voice actors, but for the entire dubbing industry.

What is AI?

Currently, the European Union is trying to define what AI is. Without going into too much detail, and for the sake of simplicity, we can divide the AI applied to dubbing into 4 subgroups:

Voice morphing, technology that transforms one voice into another voice.
Text to speech, tools that allow you to convert written text into audio.
Synthetic voices, which are used in audio description, audiobooks or e-learning programs.
Facial transformation, a solution with which the mouth of the original actor follows the sound of translated dialogue.

Can some of these subgroups of AI already be applied in dubbing? How? Will they replace the actors? What place will they occupy in the future in the dubbing industry?

Knowing that AI can already generate Beautiful paintings imitating the style of different painters, we can imagine that it will also be able to generate dialogues in different languages maintaining the style of the most famous actors. Of course, a well -made dubbing with good actors will continue to contribute a Level of nuances in interpretation that AI cannot contribute currently. Will it be just a matter of time?

Could AI favor the creation of a new group of superactors?

The nuances in the interpretation are infinite and the technology of text to voice He is currently not able to express all the ways in which the same phrase or even a single word.

The danger that this implies is that we could attend a simplification of the action generated by the AI If some companies completely have AI to double human emotions. As we attend a simplification of philosophical or political thought, we could well witness a simplification of the "art" of interpretation in dubbing due to the ability of AI to reproduce only a few basic emotions.

The voice morphing It could cause fewer actors to bend more characters, since their voices could be modified once their work is over. Will this impact the dubbing community? Of course, but not necessarily because the talents quarry is reduced, since, while all this happens, the demand is growing so fast that we are looking for new dubbing actors worldwide. Dubbing actors will have to increase their skills and be able to transmit a greater variety of attitudes by bending. In the case of animation, the voice morphing could Allow them to concentrate more on the interpretation, letting the AI take care of the variety of voices so specific that the animated characters bring.

The resemblance to the original actors

The voice, like the image, is an integral part of the image of an actor and Using it without your consent is illegal. Some actors give their voice to AI, as some of us give our body to science. But, for the actor, this could be less work, since AI alone could generate content with his voice. Therefore, the actors are only giving the right to use their voices in exchange for a large amount of money.

Like the algorithms They can create new faces in a Smart Telephone, they are also emerging New voices... and this It changes everything.

On the other hand, the facial transformation Could it be a solution for dubbing? In this case, the face of the original actor will change slightly when the mouth follows the bent dialogue. Will the original actors accept that your face moves slightly or changes expression depending on the language? Could it be considered a violation of your own identity? In this case, regulation will also be necessary. And, although the dubbing standards are different in each country, the same cannot happen with AI, since it will cross borders.

Recently, the algorithms of morphing They have been ready to create synthetic voices. Just as algorithms can create new faces on a smartphone, new voices are also emerging… and this changes everything. An actor could give their voice to the AI and never hear it again anywhere, as it will be used to create a new synthetic voice. In this case, how can actors control the use of their image if we cannot recognize their voice? This is a different case of image use and a real challenge for legal departments.

Taking on a greater workload: the real challenge for actors

This is the real challenge of the current dubbing industry: the existence of a greater volume of content to bend in shorter deadlines. In this case, AI is not a threat to dubbing actors, but a need.

The IA It is not a threat to dubbing actors, but a need.

In the very close future, a small group of good actors, and this number is not scalable, you can double films that require a high level of interpretive nuances, while a hybrid process will use synthetic voices for minor papers or background setting. Actually, we see this hybrid model in some areas such as translation, where automatic translation makes the first pass and humans make a second to refine it. Automatic translation does not reduce the translator's work, is only part of it, so the need for translators will continue to grow worldwide.

Towards new horizons

In the same way as the machine translation It has helped the translation business, AI could be a great learning tool for new groups of actors in countries that historically have not opted for dubbing. Although OTT platforms have begun to broadcast in many emerging markets (we are folding in Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, etc.), where dubbing is not as developed as in traditional dubbing countries, the need to create groups of actors is fundamental.

In these situations, in order to meet the demand of an audience that wants to see More content bent in your language, AI can be a great accelerator to attract younger generations to the dubbing business and develop the awareness of society over dubbing.

And now the scripts?

How to finish this tribune without mentioning the American screenwriters strike. One of the complaints that accompanies this conflict is the unfair use of AI to generate scripts of interview programs, which is why they require AI not to be used to generate new scripts from the existing ones.

The IA can contribute some positive things to dubbing process And the actors community will have to learn to work with herNot against her.

It is an important point, since AI only exists because it feeds on thousands of voices, audios or documents. Once again, we urgently need a regulation since, in this case, if the AI generates scripts imitating the screenwriters, who will take merit?

Conclusion

Who knows what applications will be discovered using AI? It is unlikely that AI disappears from our lives at this point and dubbing will not be the exception.

We cannot imagine what AI will be able to achieve, but one thing is safe: AI can contribute some positive things to the dubbing process and the actors community will have to learn to work with it, not against it.