Artificial intelligence is making steady advances into subtitling but, say its practitioners, it’s a vital service that needs a human to make it work

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AI is unable to decide which sounds are important. “Right now, it’s not even close,” Deryagin says. He also stresses the importance of the broader context of a film, rather than looking at isolated images or scenes. In Blow Out (1981), for example, a mysterious sound is heard. Later, that sound is heard again – and, for hearing viewers, reveals a major plot point. “SDH must instantly connect those two things, but also not say too much in the first instance, because viewers have to wonder what’s going on,” he says. “The same sound can mean a million different things. As humans, we interpret what it means and how it’s supposed to feel.”

“You can’t just give an algorithm a soundtrack and say, ‘here are the sounds, figure it out’. Even if you give it metadata, it can’t get anywhere near the level of professional work. I’ve done my experiments!” —Guardian