The widely-used open-source VLC media player took center stage at CES 2025, showcasing its groundbreaking AI-powered automatic subtitling and translation features. In a video shared on Tuesday by VideoLAN, the organization behind VLC, president Jean-Baptiste Kempf demonstrated the innovative functionality. The feature leverages open-source AI models to generate subtitles for videos in multiple languages—all in real time and completely offline.
Kempf highlighted the importance of the technology, stating, “Simultaneously, we have automatic translation that adapts the subtitles into your preferred language.” Impressively, the feature is designed to support over 100 languages. He emphasized, “What makes this special is that everything happens locally, on your own machine, without relying on cloud services. The process is fully integrated into the executable.”
While earlier developments in AI subtitling involved a plug-in using OpenAI’s Whisper speech recognition technology, this new iteration appears to be embedded directly within the VLC application. The system dynamically generates and translates subtitles in real time, though VideoLAN has not yet revealed an official release date.
In related news, VideoLAN celebrated a remarkable milestone this week—surpassing 6 billion downloads of VLC. Kempf proudly remarked, “The number of VLC’s active users continues to grow, even in today’s era of streaming services.”
