AI’s Impact on Webtoon Industry Raises Concerns

Student are practicing drawing in this photo provided by Seoul Webtoon Academy.

SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — With the emergence of a new era where artificial intelligence (AI) services are capable of both writing and creating illustrations, AI technology is becoming a prominent issue in the webtoon industry.

A new comic series released on Naver Webtoon, South Korea’s leading webtoon platform, is suspected to have been produced by an AI, according to industry sources.

The first episode received a rating of only 1.94 out of 10, making it the lowest-rated series among the 600 comics available on the platform.

Readers have noticed inconsistent styles in depictions of various objects and clothing from scene to scene, as well as poorly drawn hands on the characters.

These observations suggest that AI was predominantly responsible for creating the entire series.

Generative AI is a technology that generates images based on text input, distinguishing them from those created by humans.

The webtoon’s producer, BlueLine Studio, claimed that AI was used only for post-processing and that no generative AI was involved.

However, the controversy surrounding this issue persists.

Readers express frustration over the possibility that cartoonists may have opted to type instructions and click the mouse to produce a comic series instead of drawing by hand.

In contrast, industry officials argue that AI should be regarded as a tool, similar to other digital technologies like Sketchup, designed to assist cartoonists.

Lee Jae-min, head of the Cartoon Culture Research Institute, emphasized the importance of transparency in crediting the use of AI.

“It is crucial to not only disclose the use of AI but also specify the type of AI employed,” he said.

Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)