Max is getting Google AI-generated closed captions

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The AI-generated captions will first roll out on ‘unscripted’ programming.

By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.

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Illustration by Álvaro Bernis / The Verge

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is partnering with Google Cloud to generate closed captioning for content on the studio’s Max streaming service in the US. WBD will use a new “caption AI” solution that runs on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to generate speech-to-text for some shows, starting with “unscripted programming.”

Captions generated for the Max shows will have human oversight for quality assurance. According to Google, the workflow will reduce caption file creation time by up to 80 percent and cut costs by up to 50 percent compared to manual methods. WBD will continuously refine and train caption AI to make fewer mistakes.

Notably, most content on Max already has closed captioning tracks, and WBD hasn’t said how extensively it will use caption AI. Automatic speech-to-text services for video captioning have been available for years, but with a large studio like WBD now testing the latest AI for the job, we might see a future where the tech is the norm for this task.

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