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VLC media player, a popular open-source software, has achieved a milestone of 6 billion downloads worldwide. At CES 2025, VideoLAN, the nonprofit organization behind VLC, showcased an innovative AI-powered subtitle system.
The new feature uses open-source AI models to automatically generate real-time subtitles for any video, without requiring internet connectivity or cloud services. The subtitles can also be translated into multiple languages. Although VideoLAN hasn’t announced a release date for this feature, it promises to enhance the user experience.
VLC’s success is notable, especially considering its commitment to remaining free, ad-free, and without data collection or commercial revenue streams. Despite the rise of streaming services, VLC’s active user base continues to grow, according to VideoLAN president Jean-Baptiste Kempf.
VideoLAN started in 1996 as a project by students at Ecole Centrale Paris trying to stream videos across campus. Unlike many open source projects that have struggled to survive on donations alone, VLC has maintained its free, ad-free model while expanding across multiple operating systems. The media player continues to operate without advertising, data collection, or commercial revenue streams.
“The number of active users of VLC is actually growing, even in this age of streaming services,” VideoLAN president Jean-Baptiste Kempf wrote in a LinkedIn post.
