YouTube is strongly expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) automatic dubbing feature, bringing the total number of supported languages to 27, to help local videos reach global audiences.
According to YouTube, demand for dubbed videos is increasing rapidly. In December alone, users spent more time watching videos with automatic dubbing, reflecting the increasing trend of multilingual content consumption.
This shows that global audiences are willing to welcome videos that go beyond traditional language limits.
For content creators, the new update brings significant advantages. Instead of having to self-produce multiple video versions in different languages, they can now rely on YouTube's AI technology to automatically translate.
As a result, the video can expand its international reach without incurring additional costs, helping to maximize viewership and revenue potential.
One of the biggest concerns for AI voice acting is the quality of the voice reading, which is often criticized as monotonous or emotionless.
To overcome this, YouTube has deployed expressive voice technology for major languages such as English, Hindi, Spanish, French and German.
The new system has the ability to reproduce the emotions, intonation and rhythm of the original speaker, making the dubbing more natural, especially effective for formats such as vlogs, storytelling, comments and personal sharing videos.
Besides improving sound quality, YouTube also gives more control to viewers.
With the preferred language setting option, users can actively choose to watch videos in the original version or dubbed version.
This feature is especially useful for bilingual users or audiences who want to experience content in the original voice of the creator.
Another notable improvement is the environmental motion synchronization technology, which is currently in the testing phase.
This technology adjusts the lip movements of the character in the video to better match the sound that has been translated, thereby reducing the feeling of mismatch between the image and the voice.
Although not yet perfect, this is considered an important step towards enhancing authenticity and viewing experience.
Behind the scenes, YouTube also deploys smart automatic filters to identify videos that should not be dubbed, such as music content or videos without dialogue.
This helps ensure that the voice acting feature is only applied when really necessary, avoiding distorting the author's original artistic intentions.
More importantly, YouTube affirms that automatic dubbing does not reduce video visibility.
Conversely, in many cases, this feature also helps videos reach new audiences, those who search for content in other languages.
The creator still retains full control, including the ability to turn off automatic dubbing or upload a translation performed by themselves.
