cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/43980617
And are translations always done based on the native language or do they translate from e.g. the English subtitle to another language? Asking because this definitely feels like something they would skimp out on if they could.
Completely machine translated subtitles often lack quality and nuance to their translations. I’d rather have a human getting paid to do proper subtitling instead. But yes, if the option is having zero subtitles instead, then sure. That’s not the case with Netflix etc though, they can definitely afford proper subtitling.
Translation is an art as much as it is a science.
You have to differentiate between closed caption subtitles and translated subtitles.
Automatically generated closed captions, for people with hearing impairments, where it’s just the words spoken transcribed, are indeed one thing that AI could hypothetically do. It can’t do it yet, at least not without supervision and human editing.
Excellent closed captions also include sound effects where necessary, colour coding, speaker names, tone indicators, they move the text around on screen to better show who’s talking - that’s something I can only see humans do.
Let’s shame anyone who uses AI to translate subtitles (or translate anything, really).
Edit: I just learnt that apparently the different variants of English don’t agree on what “captions” and “subtitles” are. <sigh in non-native>
Probably doesn’t help that the closed caption option usually appears in the subtitle menu in most software 😅
But yeah, I think what you’re referring to is normally called “closed captions”, but I can see how it would be shortened to just “captions” for convenience in some cases.
Everyone gets upset that artists are getting their work stolen by AI but AI taking over translation jobs is empowering.
Who says AI translation is empowering? Not me, that’s for certain.
Of all the big services, Netflix subtitles are notoriously bad though. Like missing entire sentences or just flat out wrong.
And don’t understand the difference between needing subtitles as hard of hearing or have the volume down, versus this part is in a foreign language.
Most of us can’t read as quickly as we can absorb spoken language.
I learned this directly when I decided to create English subtitles for French films and TV as an exercise when I was trying to get from B2 to C1 in French. It was a good exercise, but the result was unusable because the text often goes by too quickly to read.
That’s when I understood that it really is an art.
The subtitle artist must make descriptions work, punch lines land, and reproduce dialog with the correct gravitas. And they have to do it while cutting 50 percent or more of a meaningful, culturally-grounded translation.
It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing an id-less ml model could ever do.
That assertion is invalid, at least in English. Speech is ~130 wpm 1 and reading is >200 wpm 2
And subtitles going by too quickly is a symptom of speech speed vs read speed, not audio comprehension rate.
I guess it depends on the subtitle type? I know some are just the spoken audio and some are descriptions of side conversations/surrounding noises as well. That said I’m one of those that reads faster than hearing but that’s due to bad hearing and my brain trying to figure out what it heard is slower than reading/hearing combined. Or even sometimes the subtitles are a bit fast so I’m still about even.