Spotify will leverage artificial intelligence to expand the reach of its biggest podcasts. The platform has started to use this technology to clone the voices of your main podcasters English-speaking and dub its episodes into different languages, starting with Spanish.
For now, this is a pilot test, but everything indicates that, if the results are positive, the use of this technique could be expanded. The first thing to highlight is that Spotify partnered with OpenAI to bring this initiative to life, taking advantage of the new model that now allows ChatGPT to speak.
In principle, the creators who have joined the proposal are Lex Fridman, Bill Simmons, Dax Shepard, Monica Padman and Steven Bartlett. Spotify has launched a new hub in which podcasts already dubbed using artificial intelligence will be incorporated.
Some of the episodes that are already available in Spanish are Lex Fridman’s interviews with Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari and actor Dax Shepard’s interviews with actress Kristen Bell. The Swedish company’s idea is to soon add more productions to this initiative, including the new original podcast from Trevor Noahthe former presenter of The Daily Show on Comedy Central.
AI-dubbed podcasts come to Spotify
A very interesting element of Spotify podcasts dubbed with artificial intelligence is that they do not implement voices with impeccable intonation. What does this mean? That technology does not copy the voice of podcasters and their interviewees to convert them into perfect Spanish. On the contrary, the translated versions They sound like when two people whose native language is English speak in Spanish.
What is unclear is whether this is a limitation of the technology, or a creative decision to make the dubbing more realistic. In the first instance, the balance seems to lean towards the second option. Below you can see it for yourselves.
While Spotify has started dubbing English podcasts into Spanish, it also plans to use the technology in other languages. Specifically, French and German. According to the platform, podcasts translated into these languages will be available in the coming weeks.
Another notable fact is that publications translated with artificial intelligence include warnings warning about this. First of all, the episodes in question include “[Traducido con IA]” in their title. But they also incorporate a disclaimer when starting playback it informs that the original podcast was recorded in English and that the dubbing was created with AI.
“By matching the creator’s own voice, Voice Translation gives listeners around the world the power to discover and be inspired by new podcasters in a more authentic way than ever. We believe a thoughtful approach to AI can help build deeper connections.” between listeners and creators, a key component of Spotify’s mission to unleash the potential of human creativity,” explained Ziad Sultan, Vice President of Personalization at Spotify.
A technology that is becoming widespread
The approach of the streaming service is really interesting and can contribute a lot to the dissemination of certain content that, due to a language barrier, today may not reach all the audiences that might be interested. Of course, technology also raises fears regarding its misuse.. Therefore it is not surprising that the intention is to take it little by little.
Although it is true that there are already countless applications that allow you to clone the voice of a famous person and make them speak in another language. Among the most notable cases is HeyGen. This web platform recently became famous when it was used to create a viral video of Lionel Messi speaking in English at a press conference.
It will be interesting to see how Spotify users receive the new AI-dubbed podcasts. The first episodes are now available for both free users and Premium subscribers.. It’s also important to remember that YouTube has begun experimenting with a similar option.