Amazon’s Prime Video is promising to make English-language dubs look more natural by using AI to sync up the way the actors’ mouths move on screen.
The feature will be available first on “Maxton Hall,” the German-language romance that is Prime Video’s most-watched international original series to date. Lip-sync dubs are available starting Wednesday on “Maxton Hall” Seasons 1 and 2 globally in English and will also be included when the third and final season of the show releases on Prime Video on Dec. 9. The upcoming Season 3 is based on the 2018 novel “Save Me” by Mona Kasten.
The Prime Video team worked with a combination of AI and VFX technologies to develop the feature, but the company is not sharing specifics on what AI tools it used. Amazon said it Prime Video plans to expand the technology to additional titles in the future.
Prime Video’s AI dub-syncing feature synchronizes actors’ lip movements with human-dubbed audio, which creates “a seamless viewing experience that allows audiences to remain fully immersed in the story,” according to Amazon.
“At Prime Video, we’re constantly innovating with new tools that enhance the viewing experience for our customers,” said Raf Soltanovich, VP of technology at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. “With lip-syncing, we’re creating a more seamless and immersive way for customers to enjoy global content. And for creators, we’re making it easier for their stories to reach an even broader and global audience, all done under creative oversight to ensure the integrity of their artistic vision is preserved.”
Amazon said that Prime Video “continues to explore practical and useful applications of AI that help enhance the viewing experience, always with the customer at the center and creators in the driver’s seat.”