VLC media player has been downloaded 6 billion times – it will soon have an AI subtitle generator

The popular open-source media player VLC, developed by the non-profit organization VideoLAN, has surpassed 6 billion downloads, an impressive achievement. In addition to this, the developers announced the addition of a subtitle generation function based on artificial intelligence to the player.

Image source: videolan.org

The new feature allows you to generate subtitles online for any video. Subtitles created in this way can be translated into different languages ​​using open-source AI models that run locally on the user’s device and do not require an Internet connection or access to third-party cloud resources. Exactly when the function of generating subtitles using an AI algorithm will become available to a wide range of users is not specified.

VideoLAN began in 1996 as a project by students at Ecole Centrale Paris who were trying to broadcast video within the campus. Unlike many other open source projects that have tried to survive solely on voluntary user donations, VLC has remained free while expanding to multiple operating systems. Currently, the player continues to operate without advertising, data collection and commercial income.

«The number of active VLC users is actually growing even in the era of streaming services,” wrote VideoLAN CEO Jean-Baptiste Kempf in a post on LinkedIn.