Microsoft Edge (Beta) adds live AI audio translation for videos, but there's a catch

If you watch a lot of foreign-language videos in your browser, Microsoft Edge might soon help. A new feature in the beta version brings AI-powered live audio translation for video playback.

The feature, officially mentioned in the Edge beta version 141.0.3537.13, allows you to translate spoken audio into another language while watching. It almost feels like real-time audio-dubbing.

It’s worth noting that the tool is still in preview, so not everyone will see it yet. So, how does it work? Well, when you enable the feature in Settings, Edge adds a floating translation bar on supported video sites.

As of now, the feature reportedly works only for YouTube, with language options limited to English, Spanish, and Korean.

So, when does the translation actually happen? Well, it happens instantly after downloading a small AI model. Microsoft Edge automatically mutes the original track and replaces it with the translated voice.

Not to mention, it isn’t perfect just yet. Now you must be wondering what the catch is, right? Well, the FAQs section of the feature webpage tells us that to use live translation, you’ll need at least 12GB of free RAM and a 4-core CPU. Since Windows 11 already eats up memory, that rules out many low-end or older PCs.

For now, there’s no information on whether the feature will move out of the Beta channel. But we hope it does very soon.