VLC Media Player: Over 6 Billion Downloads & Innovation with AI Subtitles | Llms examples | Build a large language model from scratch pdf | Best llm training dataset free | Turtles AI

VideoLAN’s popular open source software VLC Media Player hits 6 billion downloads and unveils a new feature at CES: automatic subtitle generation via open source AI, working offline, promising greater accessibility and inclusiveness.

Key points:

• Record Downloads: VLC surpasses 6 billion downloads, confirming its leadership in the media player landscape.
• AI for Subtitles: The new feature generates subtitles in real time without an Internet connection, using open source AI models.
• Offline Accessibility: Subtitles are processed locally on devices, ensuring privacy and independence from cloud servers.
• Multilingual Support: More than 100 languages ​​available for accurate and immediate transcriptions and translations.

At CES, VideoLAN introduced a groundbreaking innovation for VLC Media Player: the ability to generate subtitles in real time using AI models running locally on users’ devices. This solution eliminates the need for separate file downloads or pre-integrated subtitles, simplifying content consumption. The technology is based on open source AI models capable of transcribing audio and translating content into more than 100 languages, without the need for Internet connectivity or reliance on cloud services. This ensures greater privacy protection, eliminating the passage of voice data to external servers.

VideoLAN President Jean-Baptiste Kempf highlighted how VLC continues to grow in popularity, even in an era dominated by streaming services. This milestone is a testament to the success of a free, ad-free model supported by the open source community. Born as a student project in 1996 at Ecole Centrale Paris for video streaming on the university campus, VLC has managed to expand while maintaining its original philosophy.

VideoLAN Chief Marketing Officer Natacha Holtzhausser highlighted the impact of this innovation, saying that AI subtitles will help make movies, TV shows, educational lessons and live streaming universally accessible, breaking down language barriers. However, questions remain about which open source models will power the feature, with some speculation pointing to OpenAI’s Whisper. Other considerations include the system requirements needed to ensure a smooth experience and the potential inaccuracy of generated subtitles compared to human ones.

This update is a direct response to a historical pain point for VLC: its reliance on external subtitle files. By integrating a local AI solution, VLC aims to improve the way users access content, offering a feature designed not only to improve the viewing experience, but also to promote inclusivity.

A milestone for VLC, which looks to the future with optimism and innovation.