WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. announced today a strategic partnership with Genies, an AI technology company used to create customizable and dynamic AI avatars in partnerships with a variety of brands and companies. The partnership brings with it new opt-in tools and character driven digital experiences that expand opportunities for creators to give fans windows into their series and create additional monetization opportunities. Participating creators (again, the new tools and digital products are opt-in) will be able to create 3D avatars from their series’ characters as well as a number of digital collectibles that readers will be able to purchase. These items can include anything from collectible items to expanded backstories and exclusive lore unlocked via chat with avatars. These digital avatars will be available for a select few series starting this summer. Full details of product features and timing are in development. Further details will be shared in the coming months.
Genies purports to not train AI on creator art. Additionally, WEBTOON creators are included in the development process for review and approval of any assets before they go live. Per WEBTOON, absolutely nothing moves forward without explicit creator sign-off. This isn’t the first partnership of this kind; Genies recently announced collaborations with MLB Players Inc, National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), King Records, and Sanrio. In addition to partnerships such as those, Genies offers things like customizable character systems in the form of Unity assets. For its AI avatars, Genies makes use of AI / ML models provided by Google, Eleven Labs, and OpenAI. The avatars will be found within the WEBTOON app, with the exact details on where it will live within the app being something WEBTOON is still developing. But, I’m told that the Genies content will be very clearly visible for series involved in it.
The partnership between WEBTOON and Genies will begin with six creator-approved titles including The Greatest Estate Developer, The Knight Only Lives Today and My In-Laws are Obsessed with Me. Details on eligibility for creators interesting in participating in the program in the future will be released at a future date.
“Creators are the foundation of everything we do at WEBTOON,” said Yongsoo Kim, President at WEBTOON Entertainment. “This partnership introduces new ways to extend their worlds beyond the page. For fans, it transforms how they experience the stories they love, with immersive new digital experiences that offer more of their favorite worlds and characters. Our approach is deliberately creator-first: participation is opt-in, and every character experience is built to reflect the integrity of the original work.”
“WEBTOON has built one of the most creator-driven communities in digital entertainment, where artists and storytellers shape worlds that fans deeply connect with,” said Akash Nigam, CEO and Founder of Genies. “We’re excited to collaborate on tools that help WEBTOON creators expand how fans experience their stories, turning characters they love into interactive digital experiences while preserving creative authenticity.”
There are, of course, ups and downs to these sorts of digital avatar technologies. Companies similar to Genies have faced intense scrutiny and at times litigation for occasionally exposing vulnerable parties such as minors to AI chatbots with improper guardrails, leading to inappropriate conversations between the chatbot and the user(s). Many companies, including one of Genies’ model providers OpenAI, have faced scrutiny for creating AI models that promote intense parasocial and addictive behavior. In a conversation with representatives from WEBTOON, I was told that the digital avatars conceived from this Genies partnership are strictly designed to be contained to the characters they are based upon and the stories they come from.
While this is one of the more conspicuous AI-related features to be included in the WEBTOON user experience, this is by no means the first AI feature operating on the platform. WEBTOON currently makes use of AI for an anti-piracy feature called Toon Radar, which, per a recent press release, led to a dramatic 90% decrease in the number of titles illegally leaked to domestic piracy sites within 24 hours of release. AI is used in a translation feature and a recommendation algorithm as well. In an interview at Anime Expo last year, Yongsoo Kim explained to anime corner that “Fundamentally, our company believes that AI cannot replace our creators,” speaking to a broader philosophy on using AI to support creators rather than emulate their work.
Be on the lookout for more news related to the collaboration in the coming months.
Source: Press Release, Communications with WEBTOON
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