[AI IN ACTION] From K-pop to webtoons, K-content is no stranger to AI

As fast-paced as the industry is, creators have been readily adopting AI in all parts of the production process with the goal of one day creating a whole artist without any human touch.

The advent and spread of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way people live their lives and earn their livelihood, accelerating the development of products and services imbued with the latest technology. The implementation of advanced AI is quickly expanding to encompass all areas, ranging from music, art and games to semiconductors and cars.

This series will explore the burgeoning development and prospects of AI in Korea. The first part will delve into the use of AI in culture, looking at everything from robot chefs and conductors to virtual poets and K-pop artists.

Digital mastery

Virtual girl group MAVE:, developed by game company Metmarble's subsidiary Metaverse Entertainment, made its debut in January this year with ″Pandora. [METAVERSE ENTERTAINMENT]

A more active form of AI technology has been taking place in various corners of the entertainment scene.

As fast-paced as the industry is, creators have been readily adopting AI in all parts of the production process — songwriting, vocal tuning and creating avatars to debut as stars — with the goal of one day creating a whole artist without any human touch.

Virtual girl group MAVE: is a textbook example.

Created by Metaverse Entertainment, a subsidiary of game publisher Netmarble, the four-member girl group debuted on Jan. 25 this year with single “Pandora” and has become an exemplary case of tech-meets-K-pop.

The idea of an avatar "girl" group was met with much skepticism before its debut. But fast forward 10 months, and now it’s the honorary ambassador of Ad Asia 2023 Seoul marketing festival, Urban Break 2023 art fair and Kakao Webtoon Indonesia, with the music video of its debut track “Pandora” surpassing 26 million views as of Thursday. The number of its followers on YouTube, Twitter (now known as X) and Instagram all surpass 200,000, while a whopping 520,000 people follow the girl group on TikTok.

Last month, Metaverse Entertainment signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) will AI start-up Upstage to jointly develop a chatbot program named Persona AI to be used for MAVE:, in hopes of facilitating one-on-one conversations between members and fans of the girl group.

“MAVE: is a virtual idol — so it’s neither just an idol nor just a virtual character,” said Chu Ji-yeon, head of the business department at Metaverse Entertainment who used the Korean term for K-pop artists, idols.

“We don’t say that MAVE: is just a K-pop idol group. There is a market that is specific to virtual idols, and, with it being a new market, our goal is to explore all possibilities and try new things until we see what’s right for this particular artist.”

Other attempts include HYBE, the mega agency home to boy band BTS, rolling out an AI project under the name Midnatt, where former ballad singer Lee Hyun released a new single titled “Masquerade” in six different languages with the help of voice-modification technology. His voice was also modified to sound like a woman, instead of having a featured artist for the song.

The project was led by HYBE’s subsidiary Supertone, which also presented a demo video of Sung Si-kyung’s song being sung by the AI-generated voice of Elvis Presley, during an AI conference held in February this year.

Another startup named Humelo presented its demo of changing foreign-language voice overs to sound like the original actor. For example, the voice actor who dubbed the foreign-language part of actor Lee Jung-jae in “Squid Game” (2021) was made to sound like it was Lee's own voice speaking in a different language, instead of having the voice of the dubbing actors.

Some people tend to shun such new attempts, which is only natural, according to professor Kim Joo-yeon at the Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (Unist).

“Repulsion comes when a technology has failed to cross the uncanny valley,” he said, referring to the term used to explain the phenomenon of humans preferring something that’s similar to their appearance — like stuffed dolls or animated characters — but becoming repulsed by it if it looks too similar and only subtly different.

“But some technologies, such as ChatGPT and other generative AI models, have nearly crossed that valley in the recent couple of years. The misuse or exploitation of these technologies such as in deepfake or other illegal acts should be watched out for, but there are also technologies to detect them that are being developed in tandem with the advancements.” The frightening unknown

Naver Webtoon’s “Toon Filter,” a program that draws a picture in the style of certain webtoon artists. [NAVER]

Not all these attempts are welcomed with open arms, however.

In fact, an online boycott took place this year when a webtoonist was suspected of having used an AI painter to draw the scenes, due to the nonsensical placement of objects and characters that a human would not have done.

A comic on Naver’s Webtoon platform titled “Knight King Returned with God” (translated) had scenes where some objects were placed differently though in adjacent scenes, and in others a maid was standing on the bed of the mistress instead of next to it, and so on, leading readers to believe that the artist used an AI program without much care.

Reviews for the webtoon fell to as low as 1.94 out of 10 once the news broke out, and commenters largely agreed that the platform should issue an official guideline on the extent to which webtoon creators can use AI tools. A boycott movement also spread on Naver Webtoon after the incident, uploading images stating their intent of boycotting AI on the Webtoon Challenge section.

Korea is not alone.

In the United States, cases where authors have sued Open AI for copyright infringements has also taken place. Authors Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay filed a lawsuit in July against Open AI, claiming that their books were used to train ChatGPT without their consent. This was the first lawsuit against ChatGPT concerning copyright, which alleged that Open AI uses “shadow libraries,” or platforms that illegally publish thousands of works using torrent systems.

An industry-wide strike in Hollywood, referred to as the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, is still ongoing as screenwriters and actors denounce studios’ decisions to employ AI in scriptwriting and other creative processes. Similar concerns are also rising in Korea, with creators voicing concerns for their work being appropriated by AI technology and tools.

Every new technology is bound to face repercussions, but the best way is to always quickly find a new way to adapt to the already-imminent era, pop music critic Cha Woo-jin says.

“When the radio was first invented, everyone freaked out and said that it’s going to be the end of published music,” he said. “AI is here, and it’s developing whether we want it to or not. The important thing is to find a way to cater to both producers and consumers and hop on board with the trend in a way that can minimize people’s resistance.”

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE, YOON SO-YEON, LIM JEONG-WON [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]