David J. Lee is Chief Working Officer (COO) and Chief Monetary Officer (CFO) for WEBTOON Leisure, the place he oversees world 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 shopper and know-how trade government, he brings over 25 years of expertise throughout a wide range 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 Not possible Meals, the place he efficiently led the corporate’s launch of the Not possible Burger and its nationwide distribution.
WEBTOON is the world’s largest digital comics platform, dwelling to a few of the greatest artists, IP, and fandoms in comics. As the worldwide chief and pioneer of the cellular webcomic format, WEBTOON has revolutionized the comics trade for comedian followers and creators. At the moment, a various new technology of worldwide comedian artists have discovered a house on WEBTOON, the place the corporate’s storytelling know-how permits anybody to grow to be a creator and construct a world viewers for his or her tales.
How does WEBTOON strategy the moral growth of AI, significantly in gentle of issues from artists about AI doubtlessly changing human creativity?
At WEBTOON, our strategy to AI is centered round enhancing, not changing, human creativity. Creators are on the heart of the whole lot 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 earn money, 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. Once 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 really 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 great quantities of time to creating webcomics for readers to take pleasure in, and these instruments may help streamline their course of, with out compromising the distinctive creative fashion 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 as a way 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 enable conversion of those 3D character fashions in varied poses to pure trying 2D characters within the creator’s personal drawing fashion. Used collectively, creators can considerably cut back drawing time in comparison with guide 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 certain that artists’ mental property is protected, particularly within the context of AI-generated content material?
Defending creators’ IP is one in every of our prime priorities. Our AI-powered anti-piracy device, Toon Radar, actively combats unauthorized use of our creators’ work by embedding invisible person identification information into webcomic photos 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 educated? 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 strategy to innovation. We’ve educated our AI fashions utilizing information units which are within the public area or licensed underneath inventive widespread 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 person 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 turning into an indispensable device for artists, or are there issues about it decreasing 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 device.
We take into consideration that type of technological evolution after 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 unimaginable artwork.
But it surely’s additionally clear that AI goes to have a significant affect on each trade – and the way firms strategy AI can be seen as a selection between utilizing this know-how to decrease or uplift inventive communities. Whereas know-how might be able to help sure repetitive or time-sensitive duties, the guts of creation – storytelling, originality, and a webcomic creators’ artists fashion – will all the time come from people. At WEBTOON, our aim is to make sure that we’re investing in AI know-how that helps creators, whereas holding the inventive course of firmly of their palms.
With instruments like Shaper and Constella decreasing drawing time, how does WEBTOON keep a steadiness between bettering effectivity for artists and preserving the distinctiveness of their work?
This is a vital challenge for us and for all Inventive 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 delightful photos. However all of that takes a number of effort and time! Coloring is a job 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 may help make that course of simpler for a Creator and cut back time spent, that’s a win.
That is the type of mindset we deliver to all of our improvements. Actually, we’re at the moment experimenting with an AI Painter Software, that’s aimed toward decreasing 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 decreasing how a lot time they spend on totally different components of their storytelling.
In what methods do you consider AI may 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 depart artwork to artists.
However AI and know-how can help an artist’s course of, and that’s the place we will be useful. If we may help an artist cut back the period of time they must spend on part of their work that looks like work, that’s a terrific end result and use case for AI and the strategy 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 a giant position in the way forward for content material discovery. WEBTOON continues to speculate on this space and we lately launched a brand new model of our AI-powered content material advice mannequin in Korea, which notably elevated person engagement within the months following its launch. Greater reader engagement helps artists thrive, obtain widespread help, and make a dwelling doing what they love. Utilizing AI to succeed in followers in higher methods additionally helps construct fan communities and, doubtlessly, opens doorways to different diversifications 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 issues and foster a collaborative relationship between know-how and creators?
All around 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 reputation, 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’ve all the time 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 device for our artists, not a alternative. AI can tackle repetitive duties or assist streamline manufacturing processes, permitting creators to concentrate on what really issues—their distinctive storytelling and creative voice. By offering AI instruments that help with duties like scene technology, colorization, and even interactive content material growth, we intention to present creators extra time to innovate and push the boundaries of their craft.
Finally, our aim is to construct a future the place know-how enhances creativity, with creators firmly answerable for their creative imaginative and prescient, and AI as an enabler of recent prospects quite than a menace.
Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to WEBTOON.
