LOS ANGELES: David Beckham does not speak Arabic, Hindi or Mandarin. But when the football legend starred in a PSA for malaria awareness this spring, he effortlessly switched among these and six other languages, thanks to cutting-edge technology that could soon change how Hollywood localises its movies and TV shows.

The PSA in question was produced with technology from Synthesia, a London-based startup that uses artificial intelligence for dubbing. In Beckham's case, the company recorded video footage of the soccer star as well as native speakers in each of the languages it wanted to use.