It has been reported that Shogakukan in conjunction with Japan Industrial Innovation Investment Corporation, and eight other companies, wish to invest ¥2.92 billion (~$19 million) into a start-up company called Orange that claims their AI technology can translate manga in about 1/10 the time it takes for humans to perform the task.
The ultimate goal would be for Orange to translate 50,000 manga titles over the next five years. Orange is comprised of manga editors, AI generators, game developers, and other staff members.
If you think that this is just for Japan, think again. Through the upcoming app, named emaqi, AI-translated manga will be available in the United States as early as this summer. While specific titles were not mentioned, the initial offering is said to be targeting boys, girls, and adults. While the translations will be in English for now, Orange is looking to expand into Spanish-speaking markets as well as India.
While backlash is expected from using AI, there are counter-arguments from the Japanese anti-piracy group CODA which states that anywhere between $2.57 billion and $5.4 billion in damages has been done so far to the manga industry via pirating and they feel that AI translations may reduce this.
Whether or not that is true remains to be seen.
Source: Comic Book Resources
