Shonen Jump publisher Shueisha is releasing an interactive manga recommendation service powered by A.I. — a concept that manga and anime fans seem rather skeptical about.
On X (formerly Twitter), Shonen Jump news hub @WSJ_manga shared a post about Shueisha’s upcoming DEAIBOOKS service, which is designed to streamline the process of finding new manga to read. After users download the app, a virtual librarian named Aihara Pitari will help them narrow down choices from a selection of over 5,000 popular manga titles. While the concept is rather straightforward, community members have started discussing potential flaws — from programmed favoritism towards certain titles to explicit recommendations appearing unprompted in user feeds.
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A.I. is a conscientious topic in the anime community for many reasons. In this case, many doubts stem from a lack of faith in the reliability of A.I., which can sometimes generate unexpected and/or unwanted materials. “[I] am kinda concern in regards to the ai doing its function wrong and [leading] to unsavory stuff like from recommending a slice of life manga to an NSFW manga. Things like that. Hope to be proven wrong,” one X user wrote. Others have voiced similar concerns; one commenter presented the scenario of typing in, “recommend me series like My Hero Academia” and then having the A.I. present them with a sexually explicit title in response. Comments like this indicate a notable lack of trust in A.I. tech, even if it is being used by a major publisher like Shueisha.
Other X users questioned whether the service would be unfairly skewed toward certain franchises or genres. In particular, some fear that relatively niche genres like boys’ love or girls’ love may be passed over in favor of more well-known or popular ones. “I didn’t find a match for a queer love story but here’s 50 isekais,” one writer quipped. Others cited the possibility that the A.I. will essentially contain a programmed bias toward specific titles. “Probably they will just recommend things they want to be recommended instead of what you might like…” another person wrote.
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While many anime fans are united in their dislike of A.I., it has gained an increased presence in the entertainment world. Artists have criticized major companies in China for using A.I. to replace legitimate illustration jobs in the industry. In the anime world, fans have similarly rallied against prominent studios like OLM for using A.I-generated artwork in their productions. However, companies have also started to realize that A.I.’s versatility lends itself to other purposes. During a recent interview, Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini stated that, in the future, the company is “focused on” developing A.I.-generated subtitles for their premium streaming service, cutting down the wait time for those who wish to view the latest episodes as soon as they drop in Japan.
In Japan, Shueisha’s A.I.-powered DEAIBOOKS service will launch on April 25. However, Shueisha has not yet announced any plans to release the service internationally.
Source: X (formerly Twitter)
