In America, SAG-AFTRA has been fighting for actors’ rights against generative AI, and now some well-known Japanese voice actors have launched their own group known as “No More Mudan Seisei AI” (translated as “No More Unauthorized Generative AI”). They dropped a short video, which starts …Read more »
The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (often referred to as the abbreviation SAG-AFTRA) has officially called for a strike in regards to video game work. The strike is about protecting union actors from artificial intelligence hurting their careers. SAG-AFTRA …Read more »
Submissions are closed for the Pokémon Trading Card Game Illustration Contest 2024, and many people sent in their artwork for consideration. The coveted grand prize gets $5,000, plus their artwork will be made into an actual Pokémon card. On June 14 the top 300 artworks …Read more »
In May, it was announced that publisher Shogakukan, JIC Venture Growth Investments (part of the state-backed Japan Investment Corp.) and more had invested 2.92 billion yen (about $19 million) in having the company Orange use artificial intelligence to translate 50,000 manga into English during the …Read more »
Rahul Purini, the president of Crunchyroll, mentioned in a recent interview that the company was experimenting with using AI for subtitles. This got a generally negative response from many anime fans, with their main contentions being that AI cannot properly translate Japanese with its subtleties, …Read more »
Crunchyroll is making waves in the anime industry over its decision not to let digital copies people bought on Funimation transfer over, and The Verge recently wrote an article on how difficult its writer found getting any kind of help from Crunchyroll. Now another controversy …Read more »
AI voice technology company Replica Studios (a.k.a. Replica) just made an agreement with The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (a.k.a. SAG-AFTRA) about the use of artificial intelligence in the voiceover world, and some anime actors are not fans. SAG-AFTRA …Read more »
A bipartisan group of Senators — Chris Coons (D-Del.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — have come out with the discussion draft of their proposed bill they’re calling the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act. …Read more »
The Mainichi Shimbun, a major Japanese news outlet, picked up a story of a Japanese artist in the Kansai region who had her work stolen and changed by AI after she came out against AI-made artwork. The artist’s name was not given. She made a …Read more »
The Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest news outlets in Japan, published an article titled “Without rules, AI-generated art paints a grim picture for artists” and spoke with people in the manga and anime worlds about their concerns with artificial intelligence making art. The Arts …Read more »
Black Jack, the famous manga by Osamu Tezuka, is about to get a new chapter over 30 years since Tezuka’s death thanks to AI. The project was announced last week by folks at Tezuka Productions, including Macoto Tezka, son of the legendary manga creator. “While …Read more »
The Arts Workers Japan, an association in Tokyo, sent an appeal to the country’s Agency for Cultural Affairs about protecting entertainers from losing their jobs or copyrights due to AI. This includes entertainers who work as voice actors in anime. “The advancement of AI under …Read more »
There are many freelancers involved in bringing manga to America, including a number of translators and letterers. But these freelancers have concerns, including the fact that they often don’t get paid much, even when the manga they’re working on is raking in a lot of …Read more »
Netflix recently put out an anime short from WIT Studio on its Japanese YouTube channel. The anime, titled “Inu to Shonen” (translated as “The Dog and the Boy”) has a very unique feature: the backgrounds are AI-generated, using concept art done by people and getting …Read more »
Danica Davidson
Matt Schley
