David J. Lee is Chief Working Officer (COO) and Chief Monetary Officer (CFO) for WEBTOON Leisure, the place he oversees international company, monetary and operations groups for WEBTOON, Wattpad, and Wattpad WEBTOON Studios. Mr. Lee can also be serving on the boards of WEBTOON Leisure. A seasoned client and know-how trade government, he brings over 25 years of expertise throughout quite a lot of finance management roles.
Previous to WEBTOON, David was the CEO of Inevitable Tech whereas serving on public firm boards for AppHarvest, Benson Hill, and Zevia. Beforehand, he was the COO & CFO of Unattainable Meals, the place he efficiently led the corporate’s launch of the Unattainable Burger and its nationwide distribution.
WEBTOON is the world’s largest digital comics platform, house to a few of the largest artists, IP, and fandoms in comics. As the worldwide chief and pioneer of the cell webcomic format, WEBTOON has revolutionized the comics trade for comedian followers and creators. Immediately, a various new era of worldwide comedian artists have discovered a house on WEBTOON, the place the corporate’s storytelling know-how permits anybody to turn into a creator and construct a worldwide viewers for his or her tales.
How does WEBTOON method the moral growth of AI, significantly in gentle of considerations from artists about AI doubtlessly changing human creativity?
At WEBTOON, our method to AI is centered round enhancing, not changing, human creativity. Creators are on the heart of every little thing we do – their success is our success. Because of this, it’s essential that we prioritize moral AI growth to make sure our instruments help creators with out undermining their creative imaginative and prescient or livelihood. We use AI to spice up productiveness, improve creativity and safeguard creators’ work. With over 24 million creators globally, our mission is to democratize storytelling and assist Creators become profitable, not automate the inventive course of.
Are you able to elaborate on how instruments like Shaper and Constella are designed to help creators with out compromising their creative integrity? What particular suggestions from creators led to the event of those instruments?
First off, these are instruments nonetheless in growth. After we’re constructing new know-how to help the inventive course of, it’s vital that we take our time, seek the advice of with creators, and perceive how these improvements can truly make their lives simpler.
Like all of our instruments, Shaper and Constella have been constructed with a creator-first mindset. We all know that our creators dedicate large quantities of time to creating webcomics for readers to get pleasure from, and these instruments might help streamline their course of, with out compromising the distinctive creative model of every creator. For instance, lots of our creators have indicated that their best ache level is the repetitive sketching concerned in serialized content material, like when a personality modifications a pose or clothes and the artist wants to start out the sketch from scratch. Whereas nonetheless within the testing section, Shaper permits creators to construct 3D character fashions with a view to change a personality’s poses seamlessly and with out the necessity to sketch every pose. One other experimental product, Constella, powered by proprietary AI know-how, will permit conversion of those 3D character fashions in numerous poses to pure wanting 2D characters within the creator’s personal drawing model. Used collectively, creators can considerably cut back drawing time in comparison with handbook strategies. And as creators are free-up from a few of the labor intensive duties that go into making a webcomic, we’re empowering them to spend extra time storytelling and creating the wealthy and distinctive worlds that readers love.
With AI being more and more built-in into inventive workflows, how does WEBTOON be sure that artists’ mental property is protected, particularly within the context of AI-generated content material?
Defending creators’ IP is one in all our prime priorities. Our AI-powered anti-piracy instrument, Toon Radar, actively combats unauthorized use of our creators’ work by embedding invisible consumer identification information into webcomic photographs to assist block unlawful uploads. Along with our AI-powered anti-piracy work on the platform, we additionally led the cost in combating piracy in 2024, taking authorized motion in opposition to pirate websites everywhere in the world.
How are WEBTOON’s AI fashions skilled? Are there measures in place to make sure that the AI instruments do not inadvertently use artwork or content material from creators with out consent?
It is a nice query and actually will get to the core of our moral and Creator-centric method to innovation. We’ve skilled our AI fashions utilizing information units which might be within the public area or licensed below inventive frequent licenses. As a matter of firm coverage, we don’t use WEBTOON titles to coach our AI fashions with out creator consent. It’s additionally vital to notice that we don’t promote any consumer or content material information to 3rd events to coach AI fashions.
How do you see AI evolving within the inventive trade? Do you envision AI finally changing into an indispensable instrument for artists, or are there considerations about it lowering the necessity for human enter?
There’s a protracted historical past of know-how altering how folks create. It wasn’t that way back that comedian artists did all of their work on paper pages. However at present most artists use some type of digital sketching instrument.
We take into consideration that sort of technological evolution once we’re constructing new instruments. Artwork and human imaginative creation and storytelling are why we exist as an organization. Our founder Junkoo Kim began WEBTOON as a result of he’s a passionate lifelong fan of comedian artwork and artists. So something we do goes to help these issues: we’re right here to assist folks make and share unbelievable artwork.
Nevertheless it’s additionally clear that AI goes to have a significant impression on each trade – and the way firms method AI will likely be seen as a alternative between utilizing this know-how to decrease or uplift inventive communities. Whereas know-how could possibly help sure repetitive or time-sensitive duties, the center of creation – storytelling, originality, and a webcomic creators’ artists model – will at all times come from people. At WEBTOON, our objective is to make sure that we’re investing in AI know-how that helps creators, whereas conserving the inventive course of firmly of their arms.
With instruments like Shaper and Constella lowering drawing time, how does WEBTOON keep a stability between enhancing effectivity for artists and preserving the individuality of their work?
This is a vital subject for us and for all Artistic Industries. A comic book is a gigantic quantity of labor, and it’s laborious to really perceive what goes right into a web page. A reader sees a number of panels, some dialogue, and exquisite photographs. However all of that takes a whole lot of effort and time! Coloring is a process unto itself in making comics. That stunning web page exploding with shade doesn’t simply occur. It’s a protracted, exact, and deliberate course of. If we might help make that course of simpler for a Creator and cut back time spent, that’s a win.
That is the sort of mindset we convey to all of our improvements. Actually, we’re at the moment experimenting with an AI Painter Software, that’s geared toward lowering coloring time. All of our improvements are about offering instruments that may make a creator’s life simpler, so it may be simpler for artists to make artwork and inform tales. Shaper and Constella help in comparable methods, making creators’ processes simpler and lowering how a lot time they spend on totally different components of their storytelling.
In what methods do you imagine AI might help artists push the boundaries of their creativity? Are you able to share examples the place AI has already led to sudden creative improvements?
That’s actually not how we take into consideration AI. Artists already make universes with their work. We host tens of millions of comics on our platform and the creativity I’ve seen is boundless. Creativity doesn’t want AI to assist it push boundaries, and we go away artwork to artists.
However AI and know-how can help an artist’s course of, and that’s the place we may be useful. If we might help an artist cut back the period of time they must spend on part of their work that appears like work, that’s an awesome consequence and use case for AI and the method we’re taking at WEBTOON.
Past Shaper and Constella, how do you see AI shaping the way forward for WEBTOON’s platform and the broader inventive trade? Are there any upcoming AI initiatives you’ll be able to share?
Past creator productiveness, we all know that AI goes to play an enormous position in the way forward for content material discovery. WEBTOON continues to speculate on this space and we just lately launched a brand new model of our AI-powered content material advice mannequin in Korea, which notably elevated consumer engagement within the months following its launch. Larger reader engagement helps artists thrive, obtain widespread help, and make a residing doing what they love. Utilizing AI to achieve followers in higher methods additionally helps construct fan communities and, doubtlessly, opens doorways to different variations on Netflix, and so forth.
With AI persevering with to advance, many artists are involved about being changed or their work being stolen. How does WEBTOON plan to deal with these considerations and foster a collaborative relationship between know-how and creators?
Everywhere in the inventive industries, artists are involved about misuse and theft of their mental property. And like TV, movie, and different inventive industries, as webcomics have grown in recognition, so has piracy on-line. Webcomics take vital quantities of time and dedication to supply, so it’s extremely disheartening when these supplies are stolen on the artist’s expense. We now have at all times been dedicated to safeguarding artists’ rights, which incorporates stringent insurance policies and technological options – like Toon Radar – that actively combats unauthorized use of our creators’ work.
To foster collaboration, we see AI as a instrument for our artists, not a alternative. AI can tackle repetitive duties or assist streamline manufacturing processes, permitting creators to give attention to what really issues—their distinctive storytelling and creative voice. By offering AI instruments that help with duties like scene era, colorization, and even interactive content material growth, we goal to provide creators extra time to innovate and push the boundaries of their craft.
Finally, our objective is to construct a future the place know-how enhances creativity, with creators firmly in charge of their creative imaginative and prescient, and AI as an enabler of latest potentialities moderately than a menace.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to WEBTOON.
