SEOUL, July 1 -- Naver Webtoon has rolled out a new AI-powered story chat service that allows readers to insert themselves into the narrative of selected webtoons, marking the platform's latest push into interactive storytelling.

According to Korea JoongAng Daily, the service, called byUs, lets users become the protagonist of a creator-approved title and shape the plot through conversational exchanges with characters. Only intellectual property cleared by original creators is included, a move aimed at avoiding the copyright and explicit-content controversies that have surrounded unlicensed AI story generators.

byUs offers two modes. "Original story" allows fans to begin within the existing universe of a webtoon and branch into new plotl...