Spotify Using AI to Translate Podcasters' Original Voices to Additional Languages

[NEPOBABY]

More simply: think of those old Godzilla monster movies shot in Japan. Imagine no translations and no subtitles. Probably not as fun to watch, eh? Someone goes to the trouble of overdubbing them in your own language and you likely enjoy them a bit more. Apply the same to any foreign language film now.

That's literally the opposite of reality.

True film fans prefer to watch and listen to the actual performances of foreign actors.

Movies such as Parasite and Cinema Paradiso can only be enjoyed in their original languages. Subtitles are perfectly fine. Hence, they won Oscars and were watched all over the world in Korean and Italian.

It's always better to listen to content and movies in their original language. Broaden your mind, learn to listen to and understand languages. Don't let some buggy AI turn your brain into a vegetable and do the thinking and translating for you.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yeah, for me. You take this stuff pretty personally evidently.

Nope- just the opposite. I look at this consumer benefit objectively... and see how it could help millions of people enjoy content that they otherwise could not because there is no translation of it for them. I believe that's the OPPOSITE of taking it personally.

I'm fluent in English and most podcasts appear to be in English. So most podcasts work fine without translation for me. However, there is a whole world with FAR, FARRRRRRRR more people who do not have English as native tongue. Maybe some of them really wish they could enjoy some of the best podcasts produced in English but can't. Now perhaps they can. As I see it, great for all involved!

Whether I ever get to enjoy this particular benefit doesn't matter. I can appreciate the benefit for all those who might.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

That's literally the opposite of reality.

True film fans prefer to watch and listen to the actual performances of foreign actors.

Movies such as Parasite and Cinema Paradiso can only be enjoyed in their original languages. Subtitles are perfectly fine. Hence, they won Oscars and were watched all over the world in Korean and Italian.

It's always better to listen to content and movies in their original language. Broaden your mind, learn to listen to and understand languages. Don't let some buggy AI turn your brain into a vegetable and do the thinking and translating for you.

That's great. But practically, I'm doubting people can be motivated to learn up to all languages to enjoy all media in native languages. When I was a kid enjoying those Godzilla movies overdubbed in English, I had not yet mastered my own language. If it was in native tongue only, I would have changed the channel and never enjoyed the movie until- perhaps- I could get around to learning Japanese... which would still be on the todo list, which means I still would not be able to enjoy those movies. Admittedly, I'm probably NEVER going to have time to learn Japanese. So I would probably NEVER get to enjoy those movies.

All these years later, I get a bunch of channels in an overall package in a variety of other languages. I bet some of that is fantastic stuff. But unfortunately, I am not a linguist and probably could not learn all of the languages in 10 lifetimes. So I basically don't watch any of that stuff even if some of it might be great programming. I just change the channel to something I am able to both watch and understand (the dialogue).

Yes, for movies, subtitles can be much better than overdubbing. For podcasts, there is no movie (unless it's video podcast), so some kind of language translation would be needed to hear the podcast in a language other than its native one. OR, interested listeners need to study upwards of all of the languages in the world so they can be "true podcast fans." One of those seems much more practical than the other to me... but apparently I'm not a realist.

 

[Tagbert]

I cannot understand wanting to listen to this.

If you want to listen to what a podcaster is saying but don't speak the language this gives you some hope of taking in their message. Just like any Automatic translation you may get more of a gist of it than an exact. That depends on the quality of the translation. I don't know that I would primarily consume podcasts this way but there are podcasts or subjects covered where I have no way to understand it and this could help that.

 

[Tagbert]

That's literally the opposite of reality.

True film fans prefer to watch and listen to the actual performances of foreign actors.

Movies such as Parasite and Cinema Paradiso can only be enjoyed in their original languages. Subtitles are perfectly fine. Hence, they won Oscars and were watched all over the world in Korean and Italian.

It's always better to listen to content and movies in their original language. Broaden your mind, learn to listen to and understand languages. Don't let some buggy AI turn your brain into a vegetable and do the thinking and translating for you.

Forget about Godzilla. that is a film where you have a visual to guide you in understanding.

These are podcasts. All you have is the spoken word. If you don't understand the language, there is virtually no reason to listen to it. If there is a podcast in Spanish talking about new latino music, I might want to listen to that to discover new artists but I don't speak Spanish. Just listening to it would not help. If they offered an auto translated version of it and were clear that it was a translation, I could listen to it and get a lot out of the podcast.

Don't try to lecture about "broadening your mind". That is a very narrow definition of broadening. You are not considering the different needs and circumstances of people who might benefit from this feature.

 

[ikramerica]

Imagine a really desirable podcast you'd love to listen to but it's not in your native language. Click a button to listen to it in your language. You get what you want instead of not being able to listen at all because you don't understand the primary language of the podcast.

More simply: think of those old Godzilla monster movies shot in Japan. Imagine no translations and no subtitles. Probably not as fun to watch, eh? Someone goes to the trouble of overdubbing them in your own language and you likely enjoy them a bit more. Apply the same to any foreign language film now.

I have never bought into podcasts so I wouldn’t even know how to find a “really desirable” podcast in another language.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

There's search engines for that.

I've enjoyed a fair number of podcasts over the years, some focused on educational topics, some more documentary, etc. Generally, they have all been in English- American or British- which I've been able to understand both because English is my native language. However, if there was one that was made in Iceland or Romania or similar about some topic of interest, I'd have no potential at all to understand it since I know neither language. This benefit might make it possible to enjoy those too... perhaps not as well as I could if I was fluent in either language... but better than I can by not even trying because I can't understand a word.

I think of the MUCH GREATER numbers of people with native languages that are NOT English. Perhaps they would like to enjoy favorite podcasts made in English? Perhaps this gives them a way to enjoy them instead of having no chance to at all because they can't understand a word.

For anyone not interested in podcasts at all, there's nothing here or anywhere else for them. They need to be interested in podcasts to seek them out and potentially find something to enjoy in them. Or just carry on with their lives never bothering with any podcasts. Like ANY form of media, podcasts are not essential... just something else one might find interesting... or not.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

Can’t wait to hear Italian Joe Rogain powered by Crusty AI TTS!

 

[echidnapi]

I prefer my podcasts subbed.

As an aside, isn't it apples and oranges to compare Spotify podcasts to "apple podcasts"? Doesn't apple just host directories for RSS feeds that can be access from any app? I don't care about the Spotify aspect because they are a closed system. AOL for podcasts.

 

[Tagbert]

I prefer my podcasts subbed.

As an aside, isn't it apples and oranges to compare Spotify podcasts to "apple podcasts"? Doesn't apple just host directories for RSS feeds that can be access from any app? I don't care about the Spotify aspect because they are a closed system. AOL for podcasts.

Yes, Spotify calls their feeds “podcasts” but they are not technically the same. Podcasts are RSS feeds that are generally public and link to mp3 streams. Spotify has been trying to bring in various feeds and make them exclusive to Spotify but so far the results have not been a big sucess for them other than podcasts that were already big like Joe Rogan.

Personally, I prefer to keep podcasts separate from music as the way you organize and listen to them is very different even though both are audio.

 

[bsan]

OpenAI's latest voice generation technology.

...I'm sorry, since when did OpenAI sell any sort of voicegen product? Unless this is something being offered behind closed doors?
Anyways, I guess this is cool, although it is worth noting that machine translation itself is still barely coherent for long stretches of text and conversations. (This isn't any companies' fault, the problem is just difficult.)

 

[svish]

Interesting. Will allow more people to listen to it

 

[2Stepfan]

Give us the lossless audio you promised us, you cowards.

 

[NEPOBABY]

That's great. But practically, I'm doubting people can be motivated to learn up to all languages to enjoy all media in native languages. When I was a kid enjoying those Godzilla movies overdubbed in English

That was a bygone era of bad dubbing and some of it was on the racist side. The world is different today. People enjoy watching performances in the original language with subtitles. Language learning apps are super popular. People have more tolerance for foreign accents and don't make fun of them anymore.

Replacing a foreigner's voice with a chat bot and AI voices is not progressive. It destroys cultural connections and international dialogue, and of course the money to pay for that will all go into the pockets of a handful of ultra rich bastards who don't care how much harm they cause to everyone else.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Great. And when the podcast is not a video podcast, there are no subtitles to be seen. I used the Godzilla example solely to illustrate the point of immediate accessibility. That kid had not even mastered English yet and was not quite able to read the subtitles if they had been used instead.

Furthermore, I'm not aware of ANY video podcasts that have subtitles in ALL languages. Even multi-million-dollar budgeted movies do not offer subtitles in all languages. Could you point me to maybe ONE video podcast like that so that I can see ONE podcast with subtitles in all languages is actually available anywhere in the world?

I'd love to know all of the languages in the world so I could readily hear and understand all dialogue in all languages. However, best I know, not one person has ever mastered all languages. Again, point me to any information that refutes that. Assuming I'm right about this, I doubt I can be the first person to learn all languages on earth so I could access any podcast and enjoy them as people native to each language can now.

Once again, while I can respect your idea- including the gist of it at its core- the PRACTICAL option is translation. And if this works reasonably well, it immediately opens up the world's podcasts to those lacking the ability or time to learn all of the world's languages. It almost certainly would not be as good as learning the language so that one knows exactly what is being said in every spoken word... but getting the gist of the message is better than getting NONE of it.

Any purists among us who believe the price of entry is first learning each language fluently enough to not need any translations, go for it. I applaud the years you will spend to be able to enjoy a podcast in the native language. I hope whatever you hope to get from that experience is still relevant by the time you have mastered each language. Many podcasts are talking up timely topics. If I have to wait 4-5 years to be able to hear one of interest, the dialogue is likely covering something better to have known 4-5 years ago, even if a translation is not perfect.

 

[verniesgarden]

That's literally the opposite of reality.

True film fans prefer to watch and listen to the actual performances of foreign actors.

Movies such as Parasite and Cinema Paradiso can only be enjoyed in their original languages. Subtitles are perfectly fine. Hence, they won Oscars and were watched all over the world in Korean and Italian.

It's always better to listen to content and movies in their original language. Broaden your mind, learn to listen to and understand languages. Don't let some buggy AI turn your brain into a vegetable and do the thinking and translating for you.

You have not experienced Shakespeare until you read them in their original Klingon

 

[Sevendaymelee]

It's clear to me that the only thing that drives progress is money. Because anyone with any common sense would never have invented AI.

Ever.