"Netflix has reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining a subtitling and dubbing ecosystem for K-content through professional translators.

On October 15, Netflix, in collaboration with the Korea Creative Content Agency, hosted a Global Localization Roundtable at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul.

Catherine Lertat, Netflixs Senior Director of Global Content Localization, stated, Subtitling and dubbing are not secondary tasks; they are a second production. Subtitles must capture the essence of the dialogue within the time viewers can read them, and dubbing must convey the original meaning and emotions through voice acting, which requires significant time and effort to produce.

Netflix reported that it collaborates with 122 partners worldwide to provide dubbing in 36 languages and subtitles in 33 languages. Approximately 60 people are involved in the production of dubbing for a single language, leveraging expertise in translation, acting, and recording to convey the original works appeal.The Korean series Physical: 100 was highlighted as a representative example of localization. The original Korean version of Physical: 100 supports dubbing in 16 languages, while the Italian version has 13 languages and the Mexican version has 10 languages, with subtitles available in 32 languages.
....
Lertat noted that AI-generated subtitles and dubbing struggle to convey human emotions. She remarked, Sophisticated and elegant emotions, like those in the film Possible Love, can only be replicated by humans. AI cannot replace experts; it serves as a tool to support our work."

Since I have no knowledge of competitive chess, the text was even more confusing on a first reading. In the beginning, the author associates the use of two chess engines directly with his victory, and only in the following paragraph does it become clear that the engines were used for preparation the night before. Their use during official games is actually forbidden.

Once this is clarified, his analogy between competitive chess and education proves weak, firstly because chess engines and LLMs are different technologies. Engines operate in a closed domain with verifiable output, unlike LLMs. Plus, the evidence he presents is based on a closed circle ("serious players"), not the average student. Chess players at this level are highly motivated people with a strong objective, i.e. competition, for which they prepare intensively. Students may not have such motivation.

We can compare this to sport and physical exercise, whose benefits depend on the conditions:
a) competition: high motivation, systematic preparation.
b) recreational play: voluntarily and for enjoyment.
c) compulsory physical education at school: young children may not perceive the benefit of the activity and have no intrinsic motivation for it.
d) the simulation of play or the observation of others playing: familiarity with the game but does not develop physical capacity.

The author's experience corresponds to (a), whereas much of formal education is more about (c), sometimes aspiring to be (b). A student who reads answers produced by an LLM is closer to (d).

One valid proposition is that assessment should remain AI-free, and it coincides with what a number of institutions already propose.

https://lnkd.in/dPJkhbZk

Translators know a thing or two about this, so, dear mathematicians, if you have a translator around, talk to them. They'll surely offer a sympathetic ear, and maybe have some useful things to say about credit, expertise, accountability, invisible labour, and more.

Quote from://https://lnkd.in/dXd9M6Rv

Context: https://lnkd.in/d2qJYSN5

The Association for Human Mathematics: https://www.ahmath.org/

#humanmathematics

The model sits between the budget and premium tiers.
Trust sits at the heart of every successful partnership.
I read x and then I sat with it (oh the mental imagery, please...)

Let's be more original, let's use one of the many other verbs out there, shall we?

PS (meta-observation): While I was writing this, I noticed how much easier it is to anthropomorphise things. I had to fight against writing "in its effort to sound natural, it avoids literal renderings".

#Spitha #AIsubtitling
18 September 2026

Here's part of the article by NYT:

"Amazon Prime Video is using artificial intelligence to change actors’ lip movements in alternate-language versions of its shows.
As of Wednesday, subscribers have the option to view “Lip sync for English Dub” versions of Seasons 1 and 2 of “Maxton Hall,” a popular German soap opera. Viewers who choose this option are shown a version of the show in which the original German dialogue has been dubbed into English — and in which the actors’ lips have been digitally altered to approximate the appropriate movements.
[...]
Soltanovich’s statement said that Amazon hoped A.I. lip-syncing would allow creators to reach a broader audience, and that it would work with them to “ensure the integrity of their artistic vision is preserved.”
Amazon has previously experimented with using A.I. to translate its film and television properties.
It began offering versions of some titles with A.I.-generated audio tracks last year. After users complained about the quality of the voices created by A.I., the company removed the feature from some titles, although it remains available on others.
While A.I. was used to create the lip-syncing effect in “Maxton Hall,” Amazon said the dubbed audio was created using human performers.

https://lnkd.in/dQddjz9V

#AIdubbing #lipsync

16 September 2026

Amazon Prime Video Uses A.I. for Lip-Synced Translations

A very sobering read. If the goal is "localization operating at internet speed", what happens to human involvement? Which forms of human work remain, which are automated?

I hope that the internet-speed goal is about getting the content into the hands of the translator and then to the eyes of the audience. And that in between there is a pause for experts to make the story feel native to audiences around the world.

Here is part of the text in the job description:

"At Netflix, localization isn't simply about translation. It's how we make stories feel native to audiences around the world. Every subtitle, dub, title treatment, artwork, and localized experience helps millions of members connect with content in their own language and culture. The Logistics Management squad is the operational backbone of Netflix's localization platform. We own the tools, workflows, and infrastructure through which every piece of content is ordered, tracked, fulfilled, and paid for — across 2,700 weekly internal users and 180+ external vendors. Our mission is to build the platform layer that makes AI-first localization possible. The 18-24 month vision is to automate 70-80% of localization workflows so that human effort shifts from execution to governance and the highest-impact decisions. We are the team that makes that shift real: every workflow we automate, every manual handoff we eliminate, and every vendor dependency we reduce is a step toward localization operating at internet speed.

#Netflixjobs #AIlocalization

Voy a hablar de algo que me apasiona: el subtítulo cero, la decisión de cuándo no subtitular. Claro, nuestro trabajo es crear subtítulos pero también sabemos que, a veces, menos es más.

También tengo el honor de participar en una mesa redonda sobre el mercado, IA y nuevas oportunidades para subtituladores, con Guillermo Parra López y Rafael López Sánchez moderada por Damián Santilli.

Más información en https://hispatav.com

Delicious writing by Despoina (Dessi) Verveniotou. Within the first minutes when I read verbs like καρτερώ and nautical commands like Αγάντα! I was already internally thanking the author for improving the dialogue.

It's no secret that Nolan is a master of visuals, but not a great dialogue writer. And here it was worse than in other films, I mean you can't have Telemachus call Odysseus "Dad!". It's supposed to be an epic set thousands of years ago, right? Well, everything was epic, the visuals, the score - except the words...

Dessi, however, gave the dialogue the elevated register it should have had in the first place. She chose a more poetic, evocative register, suitable for the world of epic without sounding archaic or artificial. Just perfect.
(The theater usher was not impressed, I was the only person still sitting there after the loooooong credits, waiting to verify her name. I already suspected it was her, as I recognize her style, but I had to see it in writing.)

If you're still reading, here are more of my unsolicited thoughts and opinions about the film:

The cave scene was fantastic and I really liked that the Cyclops reminded Goya's Saturn. But even though I was prepared to ignore the liberties Nolan took regarding the original story, I didn't appreciate the omission of one of the best known bits: Odysseus telling the Cyclops Polyphemus that his name is "Nobody". Nor the change of the ending.

And there was one ridiculous script choice, regarding the language convention (and what's meant to be a third language #L3AVT). English clearly stands in for Greek, and that's OK. But then Odysseus’s crew meets people speaking actual Greek and cannot understand them. Then one of the English-speaking sailors says, “We are Greeks from Ithaca.” It works for an audience to whom Greek sounds foreign and unintelligible, but it also makes clear that nobody considered how absurd the scene would feel to Greek viewers. See comments for more info about this choice.

I’m also adding a comment with an article explaining Nolan’s deliberate choice to use everyday dialogue. I still find the argument unconvincing and I think that a skilled, self-respecting screenwriter could have made the dialogue emotionally immediate without making it so mundane. Elevated language does not prevent emotional connection. Shakespeare still moves audiences in the original language, right?

Image credit: Universal, Εύλογη χρήση, Wikipedia.

4 August 2026

Το Προπτυχιακό Πρόγραμμα «Ισπανική Γλώσσα και Πολιτισμός» του ΕΑΠ προσφέρει μια ολοκληρωμένη πανεπιστημιακή διαδρομή στον ισπανόφωνο κόσμο, με τη μεθοδολογία της εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευσης.

Ως καθηγήτρια-σύμβουλος στην ΙΣΠ10 χαίρομαι κάθε χρόνο όταν βλέπω φοιτητές και φοιτήτριες να μπαίνουν στη διαδικασία της μάθησης με ενθουσιασμό, συνέπεια και πραγματική αγάπη για τα ισπανικά.

Και η χαρά μου είναι ακόμα μεγαλύτερη όταν, μετά από μερικά χρόνια, τους/τις βλέπω να αξιοποιούν ουσιαστικά τις σπουδές τους: στη διδασκαλία, στη μετάφραση, στην έρευνα, στον πολιτισμό, αλλά και σε πολλούς άλλους επαγγελματικούς χώρους όπου τα ισπανικά αποτελούν ουσιαστικό προσόν.

Πληροφορίες και αιτήσεις:
https://lnkd.in/dbm9yrSm

Ισπανική Γλώσσα και Πολιτισμός (ΙΣΠ)