If you’re one of the people who have yet to try ChatGPT, Gemini, and other genAI products, or you think AI isn’t worth all the hype we’ve been witnessing in the last few years, I’m about to show you what’s easily the best use of AI so far. If you’re already a fan of ChatGPT like me, you’ll love this feature even more, as it further proves that AI products can improve various aspects of our lives.
The guys behind the free VLC program, the incredibly popular video player that can play any video file with ease, came up with a way to put AI to good use for those people who need subtitles in their VLC experience. VLC parent VideoLAN brought at CES 2025 a demo of the player using on-device AI to offer subtitles and translation in real-time as a video is playing.
The AI’s ability to translate languages or offer real-time transcripts of voice files isn’t new. It’s not something VideoLAN invented. Galaxy AI phones like the Galaxy S24 and Samsung’s foldables can provide such features. ChatGPT can translate languages and talk to you in multiple languages if you choose to.
What’s impressive here is how VideoLAN employs this technology to fix a problem many VLC users might have.
I’m not just a fan of ChatGPT; I’ve also been a longtime user of VLC, and subtitles are a key part of the experience, even if I understand the language. The audio might not always be great, and I also have some mild hearing loss. That’s where subtitles can help, and I can’t wait to see VideoLAN’s feature in action. The real-time translation of subtitles would be an extra perk.
According to The Verge, VLC will eventually support 100 languages. “We have automatic translation working to translate the subtitles to your own language,” VideoLAN president Jean-Baptiste Kempf said at CES. “What’s important is that this is running on your machine locally, offline, without any cloud services. It runs directly inside the executable.”
The best part of VLC’s use of AI to support real-time subtitles and translation is that VideoLAN will use open-source AI for the feature. That means it’s not going to ChatGPT or a different provider. The AI running on-device is also another great feature for privacy reasons. It means the model won’t talk to anyone’s servers about the user’s VLC activity.
While all that sounds great, there’s no telling when VideoLAN will actually bring real-time AI subtitles and translations to VLC or whose AI it’ll use for the feature. But, as you can see below, the feature is working.
Also, it’s unclear whether the feature will be available for free to users. VideoLAN celebrated 6 billion downloads this week, proving VLC is incredibly popular in the age of streaming. But the video player is so widely used because it’s available for free. Truth be told, I’d pay for VLC, considering its versatility. It’s one of the apps I’d install first on any computer, as it can play virtually anything.
The AI, on the other hand, even the open-source, on-device kind, might always cost you something. Again, I’d be willing to pay for a genAI product with one job: Provide real-time subtitles and translation for any video file I play in VLC.
