Host of Miss Korea apologizes for 'inappropriate question' about deepfake

Winners of the 2024 Miss Korea, including top-prize winner Kim Chae-won (center) pose for a photo at the Coex Auditorium in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul on Tuesday. (Newsis)

The host company of the 68th annual Miss Korea competition issued an official apology Thursday, concerning a question for the finalists about videos using deepfake technology.

During this year's event in Seoul on Tuesday, 15 finalists had to answer various pre-prepared questions. One of the questions was, "If the image of myself in a deepfake video looks more attractive (than myself), how could I reduce the gap (between the image) and my actual self?"

"It was wrong for us as the host to use the word deepfake, when the illegal videos using deepfake technology are inflicting severe damage (in the society) ... We should have taken more care with the questions, considering that deepfake is currently being misused to create illegal sexual videos," said the Global E&B, subsidiary of the Hankook Ilbo daily, offering an apology for all candidates of the event and anyone who felt discomfort from the question.

"The 'deepfake video' in the question referred to 'recreating a real-life image by using AI technology, and was asking about the difference between (the candidates') actual self and the digitally-recreated version of themselves,” the company explained.

Other questions in the final Q&A had included ones about social issues, such as how to address the "glass ceiling" problem preventing highly accomplished women from being promoted to top jobs, and how to reduce intergenerational conflict.

Kim Chae-won, a student at Yonsei University, was crowned the top place “Jin” at this year's event.

Almost immediately after the event's completion, the disputed question circulated online, sparking controversy over whether it was appropriate to ask a question related to deepfake technology, particularly when the event is not directly related to the issue.

Sexual extortion using deepfake videos, which digitally alter pornographic videos to add the faces of other people, is been one of the biggest social issues ailing South Korea as of late. The mostly female victims of such crimes were found to be acquaintances of the culprit in many cases, and police data showed that teens are responsible for the majority of such crimes.

National Police Agency data submitted to Rep. Cho Eun-hee of the ruling People Power Party showed in August that 73.6 percent of those caught making the fake videos between January and July of this year were teens.

South Korea only recently added legal clauses to punish deepfake crimes, revising the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes in 2020 to legally define and specify criminal punishments for such crimes.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)