Auto-Captions in Video Translations: Helpful or Hurtful?
With all the forms of video media online, from long-form documentaries on platforms like YouTube and Amazon to short-form videos on Instagram Reels and TikTok, auto-captions are an addition that has had its fair share of ups and downs. YouTube is well known for its implementation of auto-generated captions back in 2009 after realising that encouraging creators to add them was not enough. However, how do auto-captions work, and why are they so borderline in their usefulness? To start with, we have to go back to the start of how auto-generated captions came about. The foundation of captions is related to the first automated speech recognition in computers. The software itself had a 42,000-word vocabulary in 1962 with IBM and translated speech to text in real-time. Now, in the modern age, with all sorts of new language training models implemented to enhance speech recognition and with the help of AI, this software has a higher capability than it us...