Japan asks OpenAI not to infringe on 'irreplaceable' manga and anime content

While the rest of the world often considers manga and anime to be mere cartoons and comics, content exclusively for children and “nerds” who are passionate about the genre, in Japan the situation is quite different. What is often dismissed outside Japan as a childish passion is, within Japan, considered one of the nation's most characteristic arts, a story of passion, sacrifice and immeasurable work.

Recently, the tech company OpenAI released a new application called Sora: an artificial intelligence capable of generating clips based on any material provided to it. A few weeks after its release, due to the excessive use of copyrighted material by users, the Japanese government was forced to ask the company responsible for this application not to violate the content of anime and manga, defined as “irreplaceable treasures”.

According to an ITMedia report viewed by IGN, the request appears to have been officially made by the minister responsible for the relationship between AI and copyright-protected content. The latter was subsequently reported by Minoru Kiuchi, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, during a recent press conference.