There are more CM projects available on Project Finder, but none of them are assigned. Perhaps the Staff are on summer holidays. Or maybe this is Viki’s testing time, to see if they should continue with volunteers or go totally with AI.
I watched a few romances with only AI subs on Viki. Our AI subs are better than YT, IQi and DBox. Most people don’t notice the contradictory subs, even on Viki. They are just glad to understand what they are watching.
While I’m not planning to be CM, it’s quite upsetting that Viki seems to move in direction of not giving channels to volunteer CMs.
Sure, I understand the need for AI subs when the episodes are uploaded, as I remember times we had do deal with people being extremely mean to volunteer teams, because the subtitling was not fast enough for them.
But extensive use of AI subs and not letting Moderators edit them is not good either. While in Viki I’ve seen less he/she mistakes in subtitles, their subs are not actually better than some other sites. I don’t mind simplifying translation for better understanding, but with Viki AI translation (and with the paid subbers as well) it often gets overly simplified, to the point where the deeper meaning of the conversation gets lost. Or the translations just has vaguely similar meaning as the original language. Sure, many viewers might not mind, but it annoys me a lot. 
And as Viki mostly gets delayed licenses for dramas, the much better translation was one of the things that made Viki different from other sites. Viki probably does have more languages represented than most other sites, but for how long will they have that advantage?
My personal concern is of course the fact that if channels are not given to CMs anymore, it will mean that smaller languages like my own will disappear from Viki all together. As it seems they are not important to Viki.
I just wish Viki was honest with it’s volunteers and told us what will happen in the future. If they want to just offer AI subs for their clients, fine, just tell us so. It shouldn’t be this hard.
Would I buy Vikipass, if one day I will not be able to volunteer in Viki, which would mean I will lose my Vikipass and cannot watch many shows in here? No. There are sites which upload dramas much faster and have similar or better translation. Why would I waste my money here?
Neither would I, regardless of what shows they upload or the speed and quality of the subtitles. If they dis us as volunteers, why would we stay and fill their wallet? And if all other streaming sites disappear, we can always go back to reading books.
They might get Estonian presubs someday…
I’ve been on Viki for a very long time its around 20 years and I have a deep connection to this platform. That’s why it honestly saddens me that we are left completely in the dark, with no basic communication coming our way regarding this whole situation.
When this topic came up, I decided to ask an AI chatbot for its take on Viki’s volunteer model versus bigger, commercial platforms. The response was quite detailed, but I wanted to share the key takeaways regarding AI translations:
“AI translators excel in major languages like English or Spanish. However, when it comes to smaller languages (such as Slovak, Finnish, Arabic, Hungarian, etc.), they make huge grammatical and stylistic errors. Viki’s volunteer community translates into over 200 languages, which is something no other streaming service offers.”
Another huge downside of just AI subtitles is that viewers lose out on cultural context. Viki volunteers frequently include “K-translator notes” directly in the subtitles to explain cultural nuances, something AI simply cannot do.
When I asked the AI what the best strategy for Viki would be based on current market trends, the answer was this one : “Completely eliminating volunteers would be catastrophic for Viki. The best and most realistic strategy is a hybrid model.”
1 , AI as an Assistant (Layer 1):** AI quickly generates a rough translation and timing right after an episode drops.
2 , Community as Editors (Final Layer):** Volunteers review the text, fix cultural contexts, smooth out the dialogues, and adapt them for smaller languages.
This way, Viki keeps the speed the market demands without losing its biggest competitive advantage—its community heart and language diversity.
If Viki goes “full AI,” they will destroy this community and lose their most loyal subscribers and promoters, who hype up these shows for free. I really want to emphasize that final part:
“Volunteers review the text, fix cultural contexts, smooth out the dialogues, and adapt them for smaller languages”.
And in the end without volunteers, Viki will eventually have to pay expensive external localization companies to fix these machine errors for actual money, rather than just a “thank you” or a few profile stickers once a year. (And don’t take me wrong—I literally wait for those stickers like a kid after Christmas! 
)
Logically speaking, I wouldn’t pay for a Viki Pass either under a full-AI model. Why? If I have to watch shows with flat, lifeless texts that lack emotion, color, and cultural value, I might as well subscribe to a bigger platform with a wider selection and faster releases. Personally, I can watch shows in English, German, or Hungarian, so subtitles or even dubbing in those languages works for me.
However, there are still so many people who truly appreciate our work and need proper subtitles in their native languages to understand and enjoy the story. If Viki forgets that, they lose what makes them unique. The world is changing, and so are we—but let’s do it with heart and reason. Let’s prioritize quality over quantity.
After all our posts here, we can see that projects are no longer disappearing from Project Finder, and no new appointments have been made either. However, it seems to me that Viki is making a mockery of us. They’re following our discussions and acting as if they’re doing it just to spite us. It’s as if we were their playthings.
With each passing day, I feel like they’re making a mockery of us, but a childish one. “If you don’t like something, look, we’re doing it this way or exactly that something.” That’s pretty much their attitude. One or more Viki people are sitting at a keyboard in front of some monitors and treating us with a total lack of respect. 
A movie was assigned to a CM yesterday. Let’s all support the CM of “Scare Out.” Scare Out | Watch with English Subtitles, Reviews & Cast Info | Viki
Thank you! A very common thing of the past now looks like a triumph. A movie. Usually movies were projects for newbies, now they are the apple of the eye of the Community. In the meanwhile, Viki improved its look. Now we know where lies its care 
I completely agree with the idea of a hybrid model, and I would just like to add that I don’t think this issue only concerns smaller languages.
I am currently moderating a project in a major language, and I see every day how much time and energy my team puts into turning the initial BOT subtitles into something accurate, natural and enjoyable to watch.
The BOT can certainly be useful as a starting point. I am not against AI, and I believe it can be a valuable tool when it assists human teams. But it still makes significant mistakes: mistranslations, wrong genders, incorrect relationships or levels of formality, inconsistencies, awkward sentences, lost nuances… Sometimes the meaning itself is simply wrong. And beyond correcting errors, our teams restore context, emotion, cultural nuances, consistency between episodes and the natural flow of dialogue.
That is why, to me, the hybrid model makes so much sense: AI can provide speed, while the community provides the understanding, sensitivity and quality that a machine translation alone cannot currently offer.
Losing that human layer would affect all languages, including the major ones. And I genuinely believe it would mean losing a large part of the quality that has always made Viki different from other streaming platforms.
As a viewer, I feel the same way as others have expressed here: I would not want to pay for a Viki Pass to watch raw BOT subtitles. There are other platforms where I can already find machine-translated or standardized subtitles. What has always made Viki special to me is precisely what its community adds to them.
AI and volunteers don’t have to replace one another. They can complement each other. And I sincerely hope that this is the future Viki chooses.
I agree with you. I hang out with several Eastern drama fan groups and SEEING AUDIENCES OFTEN CHOOSE ILLEGAL BUT FREE SITES, SETTLING FOR THE TRANSLATIONS THEY FIND. Why pay to have the same quality for free? They also complain about Viki’s slow loading of episodes (you often find bad reviews of good dramas because of this). So, rough translations and slow loading ("I have already watched on *name of the site). Now people caring a good translations (this sort of public still exists) has nowhere to go. In the past they said “I wait for the editing of the episodes, in the meanwhile I’ll watch something else”.
Viki has got already the weapon to fight the competition and for free, but chose not to use it anymore. Why? A question more without answer.
I just found out a new channel got a CM from the short list of Viki’s staff. So, @fsl_viki @vikicommunity, where is the automatic/bot notice from the Inbox? How are we supposed to find out? Not everyone is on the Disc0rd server, VCC.
Which channel? We have to organize watch duties as prompt replies or explanations arent’ to be expected 
Sure, look here. I just created this topic: Channel Manager (CM) Appointments 2026