Crunchyroll Wants to Use AI to Subtitle Anime

The decision to use artificial intelligence to generate anime subtitles is generating controversy in multiple aspects. While this move could speed up the release of new episodes in the West, thus overtaking piracy sites, it also raises concerns about the role of official translators and their compensation.

In a recent statement, Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini mentioned that they are "very focused on testing" AI-generated subtitles. This statement comes in the context of making Crunchyroll more competitive against piracy, which often offers free content and sometimes faster than official services. Purini highlighted that fans' desire to access anime as close to its Japanese release as possible was the motivation behind the push to develop AI-generated subtitles.

Crunchyroll Wants to Use AI to Subtitle Anime

However, the use of artificial intelligence for subtitle translation poses significant challenges. As seen in the debut episode of "Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai. (The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons)", AI-generated subtitles can be notoriously awkward, even becoming incoherent and with numerous grammatical errors. Negative fan backlash on social media forced Crunchyroll to remove the episode, raising questions about why they didn't hire professionals to do a better job.

In addition, many manga fans cite low-quality official translations as a reason to turn to piracy, with the United States being the largest consumer of piracy in the world. The recent arrest of two individuals in Japan for leaking early content from the Weekly Shonen Jump manga has reignited this debate.

While the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence may improve the quality of translations in the future, many argue that the subtlety of language is best captured by human experience. This poses a dilemma for Crunchyroll between cutting costs and meeting the expectations of the hundreds of millions of anime fans around the world.

"I've always found Crunchyroll's brand image interesting, because they go out of their way not to mention that their products are translated. They position themselves 100% as a technology and lifestyle brand, as if they had created the anime themselves."
"This literally happened to an anime last season and it was completely useless to watch outside of the novelty of 'Wow, these are the worst subtitles I've ever seen in my entire life.'"
"Part of the questions you have to answer if you want to cancel your subscription is 'where are you going to watch anime now?'" What are you? A clingy ex?"
"Crunchyroll continues to give us reasons to try to boycott the company."
"I really wish this AI bullshit had never become popular."
"Crunchyroll has definitely morphed into a company of soulless technicians focused on monopoly, it's true."
"AI is the latest buzzword that companies use to encourage their investors to spend more money. It doesn't really do as much as it promises and ends up hurting the overall quality."
"Dude, if they start using machine translations, I'll unsubscribe."
"While I'm not going to lie, AI that generates captions instantly could be quite useful and has real value compared to AI that generates illustrations and AI that makes deep fakes. There are a lot of things that people want to see that there aren't people who make subtitles for. Like foreign news and things like that."
"It's just a matter of cutting expenses and collecting a paycheck for themselves and shareholders until they leave and become CEOs somewhere else."
"Oh, he knows. ' Why pay thousands of dollars for multiple people when you can pay maybe a thousand dollars to a company that does its job and trains AI based on the work of the people you lay off?'"
"yes, it's not every day that I lose interest in Crunchyroll."