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This Week in Anime
Manga, Translation, and the Rise of Machines
by Lucas DeRuyter & Coop Bicknell,
Lucas and Coop discuss the insidious rise of AI in the translation space.
Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network. Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
Coop
Lucas, we are no strangers to the occasional stories of AI and machine translation popping up in anime and manga localization. Most of the time, we'll see talk of it in copy covered from head to toe with language about "the power of AI" and the supposed creativity that is "unleashed" through its use. And you, dear reader, have probably seen this same language creeping into every aspect of your lives. However, we need to take a closer look at how AI is impacting the livelihoods of those who make it possible for you to understand your favorite series in your native language. Just recently, AI localization house Kodansha USA available on their service. With Orange Inc.'s history and the corporate disposition to abuse this technology, there are many understandable concerns to examine here.
Lucas
That's right, Coop! A portion of the paycheck you and I receive for doing this column will come from funds ANN earned by running a paid article promoting Orange Inc. and their manga reader platform, emaqi.
This opens a wealth of compelling questions relating to journalistic integrity, the tension between individual business and industry sustainability, and the future of both anime and manga and its journalism. First and foremost, what is AI translation? For the life of me, it seems indistinguishable from machine translation, and I, for one, am sick of "AI" being used as a buzzword for "things a computer can do!"
True, "AI" has become a catch-all for tools that can seemingly streamline or assist in a certain process. A perfect example from the video games world is Speedtree—a piece of modeling software that, to my knowledge (and from listening to Jeff Gerstmann talk about it), can reduce the burden of generating vegetation for a game world. From there, human artists can come in and fine-tune the final results to their needs.
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