Why podcast companies are investing in AI-generated podcast translations despite questionable quality

In January, iHeartMedia announced plans to use generative AI tools to translate five to 10 existing shows into a number of different languages by the end of this quarter. But the company has pushed back that timeline. 

iHeartMedia is now shooting to launch those translated shows by the end of the first half of 2024, a company spokesperson told Digiday.

“We have been experimenting. It’s getting better. Not quite to the level we need it to be to say, ‘Let’s roll it out.’ But it’s making fast-paced gains in terms of the quality. And we anticipate probably this year that we’ll get stuff of that quality… But we’ll know a lot more by probably the next couple of earnings calls,” iHeartMedia’s CEO Bob Pittman said in a fourth quarter earnings call on Feb. 29.

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