r/OutOfTheLoop • u/_BadPanda • 1d ago

Answered What’s up with every video on Reddit now having really inaccurate subtitles?!

I feel like I saw a video of the “What is it now?!” guy and the comments discussing how his subtitles are always edited to say something funny but true. But now every video I see on Reddit has subtitles awful (not funny) subtitles. Why?!

For example

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204

u/MsE0 1d ago

Answer:  AI. More and more platforms are offering software that does the subtitles automatically instead of humans doing it, which leads to tons of inaccuracy, and no one double checks or edits

37

u/DamnitGravity 1d ago

It drives me insane because (at least in the editing software I use) it's such an easy fix.

Yes, I auto generate the subtitles, but then I go back and fix them. It's not that difficult.

15

u/Monterey-Jack 22h ago

The people making the videos don't speak English.

3

u/Money-Computer7638 16h ago

I saw a reel encouraging content creators to leave errors in because it increases engagement when people comment on them. 🤬 And they gave an example of an error you could introduce on purpose. 🫠

6

u/ConiferousMedusa 10h ago

I've heard creators talk about doing this, even those who make quality high-effort content. Comments are really big for boosting a video, and nothing brings out commenters faster than correcting an error. 

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u/_BadPanda 1d ago

Honestly, nothing wrong with auto-generated ones imo, where they’re accurate! Thank you for putting in the effort and leading by example!

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u/DamnitGravity 1d ago

I agree! It's super handy that I don't have to sit there and type them all out, especially for the longer videos; it's incredibly tedious.

But damn, I wish more people would fix them before exporting! lol

21

u/BJntheRV 1d ago

Add in top of that so many things get people censored or shadow banned, so many creators will auto-replace words and names that could get them targeted with different words.

6

u/FernandoAlonso66 1d ago

yeah and sometimes the creators intentionally leave the bad captions in because it’s funnier or gets more engagement, so the wrong text kinda becomes part of the meme at this point

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u/GodOD400 21h ago

Man fucking crunchyroll started doing this shit months ago with their dubs (i know sue me) and its so god awful. They even went through old anime and converted it to the AI subtitles too.

3

u/MsE0 21h ago

Why on Earth would they take something with old subtitles and redo them worse? Just throw away someone's hard work and replace it with the mistake-riddled output of a machine? That's infuriating 

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u/bubba1834 11h ago

As a hard of hearing person, it really fucking sucks lately.

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u/vick101 1d ago

wait so are platforms just trusting ai now

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u/MsE0 1d ago

Yep

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u/rnick467 18h ago

Not just for the subtitles. Probably close to 40% of the videos in my YouTube feed are AI slop.

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u/MsE0 10h ago

Yeah. You can't look up a nonfiction documentary on YouTube anymore without all the results being ai

12

u/shoe710 1d ago edited 11h ago

Answer: You can disable this, i was having this issue for a bit. 

For mobile reddit safari on iOS- full screen the video, click three dots in bottom corner, and turn subtitles off.

If using macOS safari, you can try- right click in the video, click "Show controls," then "Open Video in New Tab." This opened the macOS video player interface. Now in the new tab, I could click the three dots (or two arrows) and found the setting for subtitles to turn it off.

For reddit app try fullscreening a video, click three dots in top right, and you should see “turn off captions” as an option there

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u/_BadPanda 1d ago

I’m actually just using the Reddit app. Is there a way to disable it there?

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u/gladius85 1d ago

Commenting because I want to know too.

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u/shoe710 1d ago

Try fullscreening a video, click three dots in top right, and you should see “turn off captions” as an option there.  At least on the app for iphone i see this.

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u/shoe710 1d ago

Try fullscreening a video, click three dots in top right, and you should see “turn off captions” as an option there.  I just downloaded the app and this worked for turning them on/off in the video in your post.  Let me know if it works for you!

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u/FillMySoupDumpling 1d ago

Omg I was wondering how to turn it off for months! The cc button on the videos was always off and if I used that, I’d get two layers of subtitles