At CES 2025, VideoLAN showcased a new feature of its popular VLC media player — automatic subtitle generation and translation powered by generative AI. The technology works locally and without an internet connection, enabling real-time subtitle generation. VideoLAN president Jean-Baptiste Kempf explained that this feature supports over a hundred languages, and everything happens without using cloud services, directly within the application’s executable file.
VLC automatic subtitles generation and translation based on local and open source AI models running on your machine working offline, and supporting numerous languages!
— VideoLAN (@videolan) January 8, 2025
Demo can be found on our #CES2025 booth in Eureka Park. pic.twitter.com/UVmgT6K4ds
This technology was developed over some time as a plugin that used the Whisper speech recognition system from OpenAI. However, the new demonstration shows that the feature is now integrated directly into VLC, allowing instant subtitle translation. The company has not yet announced when this feature will be available to users.
In addition, VideoLAN is celebrating a major milestone — six billion VLC downloads. Jean-Baptiste Kempf noted that the number of active users continues to grow despite the popularity of streaming services.
CES 2025 is ongoing, and VideoLAN continues to showcase new capabilities of its product. Visitors can see the automatic subtitling feature in action at the company’s booth.
