Prime Video’s rollout of AI-generated lip-syncing is altering how performances appear onscreen by offering a digitally modified version of each dubbed scene as a separate opt-in edition alongside the original.
The streaming service announced the feature recently, deploying it initially on the English dub of the German series Maxton Hall—The World Between Us (2024-present). Amazon says expansion to other titles is soon to follow, though the company has not specified a timeline.
“At Prime Video, we’re constantly innovating with new tools that enhance the viewing experience for our customers,” Raf Soltanovich, vice president of technology at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said in a statement. “With lip-syncing, we’re creating a more seamless and immersive way for customers to enjoy global content,” Soltanovich added.
The fine line between seamless and uncanny
Key details about the tech itself remain undisclosed. Amazon has not explained how much of the lip-syncing process runs autonomously, whether rights holders can decline to have their footage treated this way, or how far across the catalog the tool will eventually reach.
The company has also not released any promotional clips of the feature in action.
Then there’s the concern involving the performance itself. Actors bring specific facial habits to scenes, so software adjusting a mouth to accommodate syllables from another language might strike viewers as unseemly and necessarily overwrite some of them.
The move follows earlier experiments in the same direction. Prime Video first piloted AI-assisted dubbing across a dozen movies and shows in English and Spanish last year, while separately testing AI-generated episode recaps alongside a recommendation tool that sorts titles by character arc and plot structure.
Dubbing itself draws little objection. The feature draws many viewers who rely on it for accessibility reasons, while others simply prefer it. The more concerning question is whether a film that’s being performed in another language constitutes a fact about the work or a defect requiring concealment, especially when AI’s given free rein to alter on-screen delivery.
Sources: Amazon, Prime Video, Futurism, New York Times