Current Events > Crunchyroll testing AI for subtitling

(+) Yeah! (+)

mario2000 posted...

This is just going to make me avoid Crunchyroll/Netflix/etc. and stick to fansubs even more because if ever I watch an official translation I'm always going to be thinking "is this what the characters are really saying?"

You have watched many many anime shows where the translator completely changed the line and you didnt even know

Axiom posted...

You have watched many many anime shows where the translator completely changed the line and you didnt even know

Ohh trust me I know.

But at least I know it was done by a human.

ArsGoetia posted...

you dont think the model could be trained to parse things like a simple swap and replace? lol
or that certain phrases could be flagged ahead of time? (ie: movie quotes). human translators get shit like that wrong without notes too.
puns, etc. seem like a steep challenge, but again, human localization rarely does a good job either (because there's rarely any way to do a good job without TL/N)
and you're basing your assumptions off of current AI capability. i wholeheartedly believe in the next decade or so we'll have AI translation that's mostly indistinguishable from hand done, and i think it's absolutely foolish to say it will "NEVER" happen

Unless AI advances to the point that it's actually capable of doing research and thinking critically (which would require a fundamental change in how it's programmed), it's simply not possible. Even if you train it to perfectly translate any work that currently exists, it's not going to know what to do when something new comes along. Other things to consider: recent memes or figures of speech, intentionally archaic usage of words that have a different modern meanings, or the personality of the character and their relationship with who they're speaking to. Like do you think "kuso" should always be translated as "shit"? Because there are many circumstances where "damn" or even "darn" are far more appropriate, even within the same show.

CyricZ posted...

I've got a dozen in the front of my head right now:

Cowboy Bebop
Dungeon Meshi
Steins;Gate
Monster
Pluto
Zom100
Fullmetal Alchemist
Summertime Rendering
Excel Saga
Spy X Family
Chainsaw Man
Great Pretender
Cyberpunk Edgerunner (which you may consider an honorable mention given the based-on work was primarily English)

Zom100 and SpyxFamily are the only ones Ive seen definitely seen subbed. I dont know Japanese, but show never had me confused and everything subtitled seemed pretty easy to understand. I thought subtitling Camping Car of the Dead as RV of the Dead was silly since they said the title in English, but thats just a personal annoyance.
Monster is one i would have liked to see subbed. I saw the version that was dubbed on SyFy.

pokedude900 posted...

Unless AI advances to the point that it's actually capable of doing research and thinking critically (which would require a fundamental change in how it's programmed), it's simply not possible. Even if you train it to perfectly translate any work that currently exists, it's not going to know what to do when something new comes along. Other things to consider: recent memes or figures of speech, intentionally archaic usage of words that have a different modern meanings, or the personality of the character and their relationship with who they're speaking to. Like do you think "kuso" should always be translated as "shit"? Because there are many circumstances where "damn" or even "darn" are far more appropriate, even within the same show.

yes
you are listing difficulties in translating, and again overstating their difficulty imo
do i think we're anywhere near having AI translation capable of those things? no
do i think it's impossible? absolutely not
you think ai researchers into translation are just going to hit a wall and say "welp we gave it our best try" and quit? lol

MangaBroski posted...

How many good localizations are there in anime?

Uh, lots, since everything is localized. Direct translations do not work.