Artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly introduced in the webtoon industry. AI utilizes deep learning technology to assist with coloring according to the sketch context, and services are also emerging that recommend webtoons based on reader preferences.
According to industry sources on the 13th, Naver Webtoon is the most proactive in adopting AI in the domestic webtoon market. Naver Webtoon separated its webtoon AI team from its tech organization in 2022 to research AI within content domains like webtoons and web novels. Naver Webtoon developed the 'Webtoon AI Painter' using deep learning technology to assist with coloring. The AI learns from over 1,500 works and 300,000 images from Naver Webtoon, enabling creators to color their sketches with just one touch.
Webtoon AI startups are also optimizing work by learning the artistic styles of authors. Lionrocket offers a generative AI called 'Zenverse' based on a webtoon-specialized language model. It supports everything from planning to production by learning characters from ten images, and specific processes can be selectively utilized. Cream also provides the AI-based webtoon creation tool 'AiD', which learns the author's style and generates customized images. With layer separation technology, it enables stage-by-stage image generation such as sketches, line art, and coloring. Even with just five frames, it can reflect the author's intent.
Onoma AI provides a service for creating webtoons using AI through the webtoon production engine 'TwoToon'. It minimized copyright issues by utilizing over 10 million public images for training. The narrative generation tool 'Fabulator' allows users to input keywords to set the world view and characters, and it drafts a scenario based on the synopsis. It describes scenes with information about place, time, and atmosphere while considering visualization by generating composition and dialogue for full shots and close-ups. Once the created characters are input into 'Artifacts', selecting scene angles, emotions, and shots will produce the images.
Webtoon platforms also provide services that recommend customized works using AI. Naver Webtoon changed the default exposure order for works displayed when entering the Naver Webtoon application (app) from 'popular order' to 'AI curator'-based 'Automatically Perfect!' sorting starting June of this year. 'AI curator' is a content recommendation technology developed in-house by Naver Webtoon, based on deep learning and machine learning. It enhances the likelihood of recommending works that align with personal preferences in webtoon content.
Kakao Entertainment applied the AI curating service 'Helix Curation' to KakaoPage starting in April. 'Helix Curation' analyzes reading history and preferences to display recommended works on the home screen. As a result, users accessing KakaoPage encounter different home screens of works. The AI shows the preferred works, reducing the process of searching for new ones.
AI is also preventing illegal distribution in addition to its roles in creation and recommendation within the webtoon industry. Since 2017, Naver Webtoon has been utilizing the AI-based monitoring technology 'TuneRadar'. It embeds invisible user identification information into webtoon images to identify the initial illegal leaker and immediately block that account. As of late November, Naver Webtoon has halted about 220 illegal webtoon sites (approximately 150 last year and over 70 this year) through 'TuneRadar'.
As AI's presence grows in the webtoon industry, opinions are mixed. According to a webtoon survey conducted by the Korean Copyright Commission last year, when asked whether they intend to use AI in future webtoon production processes, 41.2% said they were inclined, 49.7% had not thought about it yet, and 9.1% stated they had no intention. The intention of authors to use AI tools saw 'inclined' at 36.1% and 'no intention' at 35.1%, showing little difference. However, many authors view the use of AI positively for tasks such as customized webtoon recommendations, blocking illegal distribution, and supporting creation.
A representative from the webtoon industry noted, “Given the nature of webtoon authors burdened with actual tasks, there is a strong need to increase the use of AI,” adding, “If AI assists with coloring, authors can focus on the main creation areas of plotting and directing.” They further commented, “It is essential to expand the application of AI technology to satisfy both creators and users.”