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NEWS: The Ancient Magus' Bride Manga's Return Gets Simultaneous English Release Using AI Translation


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Ryusui



Joined: 22 Jun 2004
Posts: 463
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 12:12 pm Reply with quote
*screaming in incoherent, apoplectic rage*
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L0ken



Joined: 09 Jan 2019
Posts: 82
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 12:26 pm Reply with quote
"In this innovative initiative, we have combined our unique machine translation technology with proofreading by professional translators using Mantra Engine"
I hope at least this part is true. They say efficiency translator emproves by half, but people are rightfully skeptical.
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ab2143



Joined: 09 Jan 2021
Posts: 762
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 12:28 pm Reply with quote
Guess I'll just wait for the volume release
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2499
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 12:58 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, no, this is a bad idea. Really really bad.
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Touma55



Joined: 22 May 2021
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 1:13 pm Reply with quote
I had a feeling this was going to start happening. The future for translators really isn't looking bright.
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Cho_Desu



Joined: 27 Dec 2022
Posts: 242
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 1:38 pm Reply with quote
It's sad, but most translating, editing, and lettering jobs for manga, light novels, etc will almost surely be replaced by A.I. in the years to come, because general audiences value speed of release much more than quality of release. A.I. translation gets some things wrong, sure, but it can churn out sentences that sound decent enough. Most readers in this market don't notice minor mistakes, let alone the difference between thoughtful prose and clumsy diction. (In fact, any degree of creativity in translation is automatically seen as "inauthentic" to large swaths of online fandom. They're likely going to get all the stilted writing they could ever ask for from now on.)

In the best-case scenario a decade from now, companies might keep a couple freelancers around to be the (extremely underpaid) "translation QA" staff for the sake of catching any particularly major flaws. (In the even more cynical scenario, they could simply rely on any die-hard fans online to catch the major flaws for them. Award them "10 points" on their app.)
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 14250
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 1:45 pm Reply with quote
Really? AI?
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5525
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 1:48 pm Reply with quote
And how are translators supposed to earn a living?

Last edited by MarshalBanana on Thu Dec 21, 2023 4:25 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4669
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 1:56 pm Reply with quote
Cho_Desu wrote:
It's sad, but most translating, editing, and lettering jobs for manga, light novels, etc will almost surely be replaced by A.I. in the years to come, because general audiences value speed of release much more than quality of release. A.I. translation gets some things wrong, sure, but it can churn out sentences that sound decent enough. Most readers in this market don't notice minor mistakes, let alone the difference between thoughtful prose and clumsy diction. (In fact, any degree of creativity in translation is automatically seen as "inauthentic" to large swaths of online fandom. They're likely going to get all the stilted writing they could ever ask for from now on.)

In the best-case scenario a decade from now, companies might keep a couple freelancers around to be the (extremely underpaid) "translation QA" staff for the sake of catching any particularly major flaws. (In the even more cynical scenario, they could simply rely on any die-hard fans online to catch the major flaws for them. Award them "10 points" on their app.)

The sad part is that I can see all of this happening. With the general trend towards digital media, it could easily be positioned as one of the benefits digital versions that no reprint is needed, and the AI translator could immediately spit out alternatives to plug into it.
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2419
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 2:01 pm Reply with quote
Wow, what an insult.
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Touma55



Joined: 22 May 2021
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 2:05 pm Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
And what how translators supposed to earn a living?

The same way the Knocker-uppers do now.
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Mintchi





PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 2:38 pm Reply with quote
I'm not surprised about this bullcr-p. Even Manga Plus is doing this for its lesser known series.
I rather read scans again than reading literal translation that make no sense.
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LastPage 3



Joined: 13 Jun 2010
Posts: 215
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 3:27 pm Reply with quote
L0ken wrote:
"In this innovative initiative, we have combined our unique machine translation technology with proofreading by professional translators using Mantra Engine"
I hope at least this part is true. They say efficiency translator emproves by half, but people are rightfully skeptical.

Scanlators can get a chapter out same day, there's no reason why pros can't. This is simply a way to underpay translators. Especially for a series like Magiyome with lots of unique terminology, I don't doubt that translator had to rewrite an awful lot of the chapter and was probably paid pennies.

Cho_Desu wrote:
Most readers in this market don't notice minor mistakes, let alone the difference between thoughtful prose and clumsy diction. (In fact, any degree of creativity in translation is automatically seen as "inauthentic" to large swaths of online fandom. They're likely going to get all the stilted writing they could ever ask for from now on.)

If I were a cynical person I would almost think this was a deliberate campaign by people.


Last edited by LastPage 3 on Thu Dec 21, 2023 4:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Ojamajo LimePie



Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 772
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 3:47 pm Reply with quote
I refuse to touch any release that I know is using AI translation. It's an insult to hardworking translators, who already get treated like dirt.
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OtomeGay



Joined: 14 Oct 2021
Posts: 142
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 3:49 pm Reply with quote
Oh, gross. No thanks Mad I like my manga translated by real human beings who are actually paid a decent salary, thank you very much.
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