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AI IS ALREADY TRANSFORMING HOW MEDIA COMPANIES AND CONTENT PRODUCERS CARRY OUT CAPTIONING
get the transcriptions wrong.” The intelligence aspect of AI comes into play here; like a human, if the tech hasn’t been exposed to a certain language, its understanding will be lower and the output may not make any sense to a native speaker. “This is a problem if not corrected, as inaccurate AI transcriptions can result in miscommunication,” suggests Biggar. “In the media industry, it can lead to reputational damage; in fields like healthcare, errors may have more serious consequences.” To prevent an over-reliance on AI, Happy Scribe is transparent about the ‘average accuracy by language’ and offers additional ‘human review’ when that number is inadequate. Despite its imperfections, “AI is already transforming how media companies and content producers carry out captioning,” claims Sung, touting its role in ‘making media production more efficient’. This especially benefits live broadcasts, allowing producers to add captions in real time. Biggar echoes this optimism, adding that “nearly any audio or video content can be transcribed in minutes, enabling rapid turnaround times and significantly lowering costs compared to manual transcription. By handling time-consuming tasks, AI allows professionals to focus on higher-level work,” she concludes, presenting a key idea: when used responsibly, AI improves productivity but doesn’t necessarily replace the creative process. NEW TOOLS AI-powered speech-to-text technology is cropping up everywhere. Apple’s Voice Memos app now offers automatic transcription as part of iOS 18. In the US, Warner Bros Discovery recently deployed
Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to create captions, reducing both time (by 80%) and cost (by 50%) compared to manual methods. Meanwhile, AI dubbing start-ups like Metafrazo and Panjaya are entering the playing field, promising to improve dubs with better lip-syncing and more diverse voices. While AI can encompass a number of complex technologies, Interra Systems uses automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language processing (NLP) to create and correct captions. “ASR transcribes spoken language to text in real time, while NLP optimises this text by interpreting nuances such as slang, tone and punctuation for greater accuracy,” describes Afsar. These technologies combine into one solution called Baton Captions, which can ‘effortlessly QC captions and subtitles, generate captions from transcribed audio, auto-correct errors, translate captions into various languages and regenerate captions for different video deliveries. Starz is just one of several companies to leverage this tool, using it primarily to streamline its English-to-Spanish subtitling process. Happy Scribe’s AI solutions – which cover transcribing, subtitling, translating and dubbing – promise high-quality results, combining ‘advanced AI technology with human expertise and refinement’ to make this happen. “As a technology-driven company, we invest heavily in training our model and continuously enhancing AI accuracy through daily evaluations,” shares Biggar. “However, we understand that AI still has its limitations. That is why we include humans as part of the mix, to ensure our customers benefit from the speed and cost-effectiveness of AI without compromising on quality.” Happy Scribe has seen strong adoption
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