VLC media player, the popular open-source software developed by nonprofit VideoLAN, has topped 6 billion downloads worldwide and teased an AI-powered subtitle system.
The new feature automatically generates real-time subtitles — which can then also be translated in many languages — for any video using open-source AI models that run locally on users’ devices, eliminating the need for internet connectivity or cloud services, VideoLAN demoed at CES.
The firm didn’t say when it planned to rollout the feature.
VideoLAN started in 1996 as a project by students at Ecole Centrale Paris trying to stream videos across campus. Unlike many open-source projects that have struggled to survive on donations alone, VLC has maintained its free, ad-free model while expanding across multiple operating systems. The media player continues to operate without advertising, data collection, or commercial revenue streams.
“The number of active users of VLC is actually growing, even in this age of streaming services,” VideoLAN president Jean-Baptiste Kempf wrote in a LinkedIn post.