‘La Palma’ Viewers Stunned After Spotting Netflix’s Mouth-Altering AI Dubbing at Work

Recently, Netflix viewers have noticed a new feature for vocal dubs on some of their favorite programs. The streaming giant has utilized artificial intelligence software to morph the mouth movements of actors in order to make it appear as if they're speaking a dubbed audio track natively.

A TikToker named Kamille (@kamilleofficial) showed this dub-to-mouth-match software in action in a viral TikTok.

Kamille's video begins with her recording her TV, which sports a paused screenshot of the Netflix series La Palma. The show has been the subject of some controversy because, despite some calling it "cringe worthy" it has managed to top the media company's streaming charts.

However her clip video isn't about La Palma's cinematic merits (or lack thereof) but rather Netflix's purported implementation of this artificial intelligence tech in action. Kamille says at the top of her video: "Netflix are using AI to dub their content. I didn't even know this."

At this point in the clip a man enters the frame, pointing a foam sword to the television set as he offers his take on the situation. "This show, La Palma, is in Norwegian, yeah? Now watch this," he says, highlighting the dub on Netflix's information screen.

"Now watch this, watch this," he says, heading off-screen briefly to grab the television's remote. "Watch the mouth movements," he says after starting the program back up again.

One of the show's actresses can be seen talking on screen.

"So this is original. This is the original, Norwegian. Watch, watch, watch, watch," he says, as Kamille zooms in on the other actress' face in the scene.

The young woman, speaking Norwegian, delivers her line before the man in the clip begins to comment further on this strange phenomena he and Kamille noticed.

Following this, they then changed the dubbed language to English. "Cause we changed it from English and I was like why's the whole video..." Kamille then interjects, saying that the "whole video is black" intoning a change in the show's aesthetic upon shifting to the English dub.

Furthermore, they go on to showcase the AI work they believe has gone into action. Initially, Kamille says, it appeared that the young actress in the program was natively speaking English. That's because her lip movements matched the updated vocal dub.

Afterwards, they show the change in the program — the dub is not only in English but it appears that the actress' mouth is, indeed, matching what she's saying. I.e., it looks nothing like the Kung-Fu B movies we grew up watching.

Upon seeing the change, Kamille is astounded. "No! No!" she says.

The man in the clip continues to wave the foam sword at the TV in what appears to be an attempt to further drive the point home that artificial intelligence has been used to alter the actress' performance to make it seem as if she's speaking English.

"AI, AI to dub over the mouth," he exclaims before continuing to expound upon the issue further. "And then we went to check it and apparently Netflix states that they use advanced AI technology."

As he says this, a screenshot of what looks like text from Netflix's website commenting on its usage of artificial intelligence appears in the TikTok video.

It reads: "For dubbed content, Netflix uses advanced AI technology to ensure that dubbed audio is perfectly synchronized with the actors' lip movements." The streamer states that this provides "a natural and immersive viewing experience."

The man in the clip goes on: "Using dubbed audio. AI will re-process the actors' mouths in order to sync with audio."

Kamille chimes in, "It's mad," which prompts the man to exclaim, "You have to question everything!"

It doesn't take an Alex Jones-level conspiracy theorist to entertain the potential implications that this sort of technology may have for a new wave of misinformation.

Doctored video clips, footage of people saying things they never said, making claims that they've never actually made could consequently become the norm. Furthermore, video footage and evidence that may've once been regarded as absolute proof of an occurrence may now be ultimately called into question no matter how rock solid it may seem.

However, the man does concede that he ultimately thinks the technology is "pretty cool." However, Kamille commented further on the potentially disastrous usages with AI vocal dubbing software.

"I just don't know what's real anymore!" she says, before zooming back in on the same clip to show the intricacies of how the actress' lip movements were automatically adapted to match La Palma's English dub.