Amazon Prime Video Uses A.I. For Lip-Synced Translations, tell me about this news in (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/movies/amazon-prime-video-uses-ai-for-lip-synced-translations.html)

Amazon’s Prime Video has introduced an AI-powered visual feature that modifies actors’ lip and mouth movements to sync with dubbed audio, aiming to make foreign-language shows look as though they were originally performed in English.Key Highlights of the News:

• Debut on Maxton Hall: The feature has rolled out globally on the first two seasons of the German romance series Maxton Hall The World Between Us, which is Prime Video’s most-watched international original series. The third and final season, scheduled for December 9, 2026, will also launch with this feature enabled for English dubbing.
• How the Technology Works: Rather than replacing human actors with fully synthetic voice clones, Amazon is pairing human-recorded English dubs with visual effects and AI models. Once voice actors record the dialogue, post-production AI alters the video footage itself so the on-screen actors’ mouths move in time with the translated English speech.
• Why Amazon Is Doing It: Traditional dubbing often suffers from an immersion-breaking disconnect between the sound of dialogue and the visual movement of the speaker’s lips. Amazon framing this as a tool to make international programming feel more natural and accessible to global audiences without viewers having to rely strictly on subtitles.
• Expansion Plans: Prime Video previously tested AI-assisted audio translation on select titles, but this marks their first major deployment modifying visual performances for a flagship scripted series. Amazon has stated it plans to expand the lip-syncing technology to more international titles in its catalog.
• Reactions and Industry Impact: While proponents see it as a way to lower the barrier for foreign-language content, critics and viewers have raised concerns regarding the “uncanny valley” effect, the artistic ethics of altering an actor’s physical performance in post-production, and the broader trend of AI integration across streaming media.