Warner Bros. Discovery partners with Google for AI-generated captions on ‘Max’ streaming service

Warner Bros. Discovery is partnering with Google to integrate the internet giant’s AI technology into its Max video streaming platform to automatically generate captions.

The two companies said they were working to make Max’s captions more accurate using a new caption-generation tool, which is being referred to internally as “caption AI.”

They said the tech, built on Google’s Vertex AI development platform for generative AI products, is able to automatically convert video content into text. It will initially be used for unscripted programming on Max, as opposed to scripted shows and films where dialog is already available.

The new tool cuts costs relating to generating captions by up to 50%, while creating new file captions can also take up to 80% less time as a result of Google’s AI tech, Warner Bros. Discovery and Google said.

Avi Saxena, chief technology officer of Warner Bros. Discovery’s direct-to-consumer business, said in a statement that providing high-quality captions was important to the company.

“Working with Google Cloud to utilize Vertex AI within Warner Bros. Discovery’s caption AI workflow has not only helped to accelerate our captioning process, but also has improved our efficiency and speed, while reducing costs,” Saxena added.

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, the tech giant’s cloud computing division, said that the partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery demonstrated AI’s “potential to transform a variety of processes across the media and entertainment industry that deliver real business impact.”

The company’s Max platform offers an extensive library of movies and TV shows, including fantasy hit “Game of Thrones” and its spinoff series “House of the Dragon,” as well as “The Last of Us,” the zombie apocalypse series adapted from a video game of the same name.

The media and entertainment world are increasingly looking to AI to cut some of the cost-intensive processes involved in making and producing content. But it has sparked wide concerns within the industry that jobs could end up being replaced due to automation.

In an interview earlier this month, Rob Minkoff, the director of 1994’s The Lion King, told CNBC that there are “legitimate concerns” about the rise of AI and its impact on Hollywood, but that, ultimately, he sees the tech as having a democratizing effect on film and entertainment.

“I think what AI will do is potentially democratize the process of making content, because if literally anyone is given these incredibly powerful tools, then what we should see is truly an explosion of content, an explosion of new voices,” Minkoff, 62, told CNBC at the time.

In the case of caption AI, Warner Bros. Discovery and Google are working on tech that could ultimately automate a large chunk of the work done by manual caption transcribers. However, both companies note that manual transcribers will still be needed to check AI-generated transcripts for accuracy.