After years of trying to fight piracy in vain, Japan has turned to AI for help and it could finally squashanime piracyfor good. Amidst the ever-growing concern surroundingartificial intelligence and how it could harm the anime and manga industry, Japan has surprisingly managed to find a silver lining, putting AI to good use to potentially create an automated anti-piracy system.
According to arecent report by NHK, Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs plans to spend approximately300 million yen or 2 million USD developing an AI-powered piracy detection system to help combat anime piracy. This system will ideally automatically detect websites posting pirated content while also facilitating the entire removal process for copyright holders and could significantly curb anime piracy in the years to come.
Japan Reveals Plans to Create an AI Anti-Piracy System
Japan’s Agency of Cultural Affairs Takes A Hard Stance Against Piracy
Piracy has often been likened to a hydra, as with every domain taken down, several others spring up almost instantly, and the anime and manga industry’s struggle against piracy has only gotten worse as the medium continues to grow in popularity around the world. In fact, according to recent reports released by Google, companies like Toei Animation andViz Media recently requested to have millions of URLs delistedfrom search results.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs estimates the losses caused by piracy to be around 2 trillion yen or 13.32 billion USD per year in losses. As such, fighting piracy has always been a downhill battle and AI may be the only thing capable of turning the tide. As the Agency for Cultural Affairs explain in their official statement, there are only so many piracy states that one can manually find and report, which is not only inefficient but also expensive and time-consuming. Thus, making use ofAI is definitely the smarter movein this situation.
There are limitations to finding pirated sites with the human eye, as it takes time and cost. We would like to develop effective countermeasures to reduce pirated sites and protect rights holders.
Japan May Finally Be Able to Get Anime Piracy Under Control
Overall, controversial as AI may be, it could very well end up being a boon to the anime and manga industry. The anime medium in particular is currently at a critical juncture as it enters the mainstream and getting piracy under control is of top priority to make the most of this growth. This may explain why even the Agency for Cultural Affairs is finally stepping in to handle the issue and is willing to allocate so much money towards this initiative.
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That said, the finances for this countermeasure system have only just been allocated in the yearly supplementary budget proposal, which means it will likely take time until the plans to develop this piracy detection system are approved. While it may be some time until the system is developed and put into place, this initiative could finally curbanime piracyif not completely erase it in the years to come, depending on how efficient the system ends up being.
