Is artificial intelligence going to destroy the SDH [subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing] industry? They think it’s just a transcription,” says Max Deryagin, chair of Subtle, a non-profit association of freelance subtitlers and translators. “There’s an assumption that we now have to do less work because of AI tools. Others want them.”Subtitling involves much creative and emotionally driven decision-making, two things that AI does not currently have the capacity for. Jones says that linguists and subtitlers are not necessarily against AI – but at the moment, it’s making practitioners’ lives harder rather than easier.