In a recent interview with Polygon, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini addressed fans' concerns over the chance their digital anime copies could get lost in the shuffle of Crunchyroll's merger with Funimation, as well as whether or not the popular anime streamer is utilizing AI-generated subtitles.
Back in February, Crunchyroll announced Funimation would end its web and app services on April 2. Although Crunchyroll coupled its announcement by alerting users with how-to instructions for merging their Funimation queue and library, the streamer also said the merger would not support digital copies of Funimation TV shows and movies. This, in turn, caused an uproar among users, leading Purini to subsequently announce Crunchyroll is working on a solution to give customers an "appropriate value" to what they received from their lost digital copies.
"We understand this is a value to fans,” Purini told Polygon. "We are helping customers as they reach out to us on customer service. We are trying to make them whole. That could mean a discount to our subscription service, or it could mean giving them the value on a different service where they can get access to a digital copy.”
Purini also readdressed that the company's efforts to get Funimation anime like Tenchi Muyo, The Vision of Escaflowne, and Serial Experiments Lain merged on Crunchyroll's library.
"There are a handful of shows that are in the process of being moved over. I expect by April 2, everything that we can move over will get moved over," he said. "There might be a handful of shows that we do not get permission to move to Crunchyroll, and we will continue to work on those with our partners in the future.”
Purini also addressed fans' unease over whether or not the streamer was already implementing the use of AI technology for its subtitles. In a previous interview with The Verge, Purini confirmed the company was experimenting with the machine-learing tech to "improve and optimize [their] processes" to deliver subtitles in more languages across the world at both a faster rate relative to the original Japanese release date of seasonal anime.
Speaking with Polygon, Purini revealed clarified that the company is not currently using AI for subtitles. He couldn't divulge when Crunchyroll would roll out its usage of AI or how it would specifically aid in its subtilting process.
"AI is new, we are curious to see what it can do, what it cannot do, to understand it better," Purini said. "Quality is of paramount importance for us, and if we find out the technology is not to the level that it can create the best subtitles we want for our fans, then we will wait until the technology gets there. And if it never gets there, then it never gets there."
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
