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The enshittification of AI has lead to the choice of AI used by VLC to be groaned at. I even saw a post cross my feed of someone looking for a replacement for VLC.
VLC is working on on-device realtime captioning. This has nothing to do with generating images or video using AI. This has nothing to do with LLMs.
(edit: There's claims VLC is using a local LLM. It will use whisper.cpp, and not be using OpenAI's models. I don't know which models they will be using. I cannot find any reference to VLC using a LLM.)
While it would be preferred to use human generated captions for better accuracy, this is not always possible. This means a lot of video media is inaccessible to those with hearing impairment.
What VLC is doing is something that will contribute to accessibility in a big way.
AI transcription is still not perfect. It has its problems. But this is one of those things that we should be hoping to advance.
I'm not looking to replace humans in creating captions. I think we're very far from ever being able to do this correctly without humans. But as I said, there's a ton of video content that simply do not have captions available, human generated or not.
So long as they're not trying to manipulate the transcription using GenAI means, this is the wrong one to demonize.
@bedast I would also add I find it quite helpful to start with a set of automatically generated captions, and then correct them. I don't do this often, but it saves me loads of time in a part-time job.
Is this a bit like people being annoyed at Mozilla using AI for on-device browser translation, even though that's very useful? I'm not sure if that's generative, but I'd guess not.
@howisyourdog @bedast I groan every time I see unsuprevised automated captions or machine translation. They're simply not ready for prime time.
I know some Deaf people find them useful, so I understand the push to integrate them. But this should not be bundled with VLC; it should be an optional plugin, if it isn't already.
@grvsmth @bedast it's certainly a tricky one. I would go further and say people with hearing loss, particularly those who can't lip read (me), find them more than just useful.
Their accuracy is definitely a problem to be solved, so having it as a plugin is a good compromise as long as people know that. On the other hand it's VLC, so you're getting a pretty amazing piece of software for free, and this is coming from a good place, not trying to inflate stock price with a fad.
Certainly not something to rely on if you're producing videos professionally, but I can also see e.g. a solo YouTuber won't have time to transcribe all their videos.
@howisyourdog @grvsmth @bedast I see people say stuff like this all the time and I just don’t get it. Transcribing a video doesn’t take very long compared to filming/editing it in the first place. And if your video is scripted? Most of the work is already done. Solo youtubers absolutely have the time to do this, especially bc it leads to higher engagement for their vids, and should be teased mercilessly if they don’t.
@sidereal I can't comment on the time taken to edit video.
As someone who occasionally transcribes: I assure readers that the time required to transcribe can be enormous — COLOSSAL — compared to the duration of the audio or AV content that must be listened to, repeatedly.
I can not speak for @howisyourdog but I typically don't bother with content that lacks captions (subtitles). Substandard accessibility is an immediate turn-off.
@grahamperrin @sidereal @howisyourdog @bedast Here's a video I watched yesterday; roughly speaking, the captions were accurate maybe half the time, nonsense about 40% of the time, and wrong ten percent of the time. Does that not count as substandard accessibility to you?
You transcribe, so I assume you're not hard of hearing. Does anyone in this thread actually rely on captions, or is it just hearing people debating what's good for D/deaf and hard of hearing people?
https://pix11.com/news/local-news/met-security-guard-gets-art-showcased-after-chance-encounter/
Imperfect captions are much better than no caption.
I transcribed before hearing loss (and tinnitus).
I continue to transcribe, occasionally. A recent substantial example: <https://old.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1g07sdm/june_2022_freebsd_developer_summit_special/lr6rizo/>.
@grahamperrin @grvsmth @sidereal @howisyourdog @bedast
"Imperfect captions are much better than no caption."
I'd qualify that. Better, maybe. Much better, I doubt it, especially if they're imperfect because not human-made or human-reviewed. Even occasional failures to "wreck a nice beach" accurately can break the flow of reading and cause losing track of the thread of discourse.
@grvsmth I do see your screenshot, however I don't see the pictured video anywhere at the given page:
<https://pix11.com/news/local-news/met-security-guard-gets-art-showcased-after-chance-encounter/>
I tried three different browsers, including Firefox and Chromium, on FreeBSD-CURRENT. I see a large placeholder, mostly black, near the foot of the page, with selectable text 'PIX11 Video' at the head of the holder. There's no video in this holder; nothing happens when I click in the blackness.
@grahamperrin @sidereal @howisyourdog @bedast I've had that experience before on other sites. I don't know why it's not working for you, but it is working for me, on Firefox for Windows and Chrome for Mac.
In general the site is a mess of ads and autoplaying videos - so it's substandard to begin with. I'd argue that the captions randomly switching to gibberish and flat-out inaccurate representations of what's been said is at least as substandard as no captions at all.
@grahamperrin @sidereal @howisyourdog @bedast That example is also interesting because some editor clearly put in work to clean up the transcription and turn it into an article. Why they couldn't have had an intermediate step where the editor updates the captions speaks to dysfunction in the software and/or the company.
@grvsmth @grahamperrin @sidereal @howisyourdog @bedast
> Does anyone in this thread actually rely on captions,
I do, often, if the captions seem accurate. I am hard of hearing but not totally deaf.