Japanese Publishers Invest in AI Manga Translation Startup | Informed AI News
informedainews.com
Japanese Publishers Invest in AI Manga Translation Startup

Japanese publishers, including Shueisha and Shogakukan, have invested $4.9 million in Mantra, a startup leveraging AI to accelerate manga translation.

I don’t read many mangas, so I don’t know how good or bad the translations are, but I thought the news was interesting at least.

  •  wjs018   ( @wjs018@ani.social ) English
    3•7 days ago

    For those that are interested in a different perspective on this, not of the publishers, but the translators, Anime Herald actually interviewed several professional translators about this topic. I made a post about it here with some discussion as well.

    It’s a good read and the translators are realistic about what is coming:

    Zack Morrison (translator): I would say that, like it or not, AI is coming. That genie is not going back in the bottle. And it is improving. The days of Google Translate being a joke are gone. Who knows what AI translation will be like ten years from now? Twenty? Something people need to think about. Hating it is not going to make it go away.

    However, at the same time, the companies making use of it are too optimistic about its current capabilities:

    Kim Morrissy (translator): Corporations should definitely be more aware of the current limitations of MTL/AI and not see them as a shortcut to reducing labour costs. It’s not just purely a matter of ethics but making people aware that current applications will either see a big drop in quality or require more human labour than they were led to believe.