Trying Out Prime Video’s New AI Dubbing Feature: A Review

When you’re watching a show or movie in a language you don’t speak, you have a couple of options. You can turn on subtitles and follow along by reading, or you can switch the audio track to a language you understand—this is known as dubbing. But not everything has a dub, as it takes time and money to produce. However, Amazon recently announced “AI-aided dubbing” for select titles on Prime Video. This means viewers can choose to play an AI-generated dub in either English or Latin American Spanish on certain shows or movies. While Amazon mentioned 12 titles that support this feature, only three were named: El Cid: La Leyenda, Mi Mamá Lora, and Long Lost. According to Amazon, “localization professionals” work with AI to ensure quality control on these AI-generated dubs. But what does that mean exactly? Basically, humans are checking these dubs to make sure they’re accurate and error-free.

I decided to check out these AI dubs on Prime Video for myself and see how they stack up against human voiceovers. I couldn’t find Mi Mamá Lora, but I did watch the other two titles available. To access the AI dub, you need to select the “AI beta” option in the language selector on the compatible title.

Let’s start with El Cid: La Leyenda. This specific documentary is about Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, also known as El Cid. While I wasn’t watching it to learn about this historical figure, I was curious to hear how well an AI bot could handle English dubbing for a Spanish-language production. The results were interesting, to say the least. Most of the speaking in the documentary is done through voiceover, which can be hit or miss. When you realize the voice is AI-generated, you notice the bland or odd inflections. It’s a classic case of AI-generated speech: inconsistencies in tone, occasional slurring of words, or artificial slowing down that can make it sound a bit off. But to be fair, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. While it’s not great (or even good), it does offer a bit more emotion than anticipated.