Nobody knows how to talk about AI and K-pop

Tamar Herman

23 Jul 2024 — 10 min read

Gen AI is taking off in K-pop, but it doesn't seem like anyone really knows what is or isn't being produced by it anym,ore.

A few weeks ago, Woozi of Seventeen publicly denied a claim from an article by the BBC that alleged that Seventeen used AI to write their music. "All of SEVENTEEN’s music is written and composed by human creators," he declared on Instagram in both Korean and English.

"Will K-pop's AI experiment pay off ?" reads the title of that BBC article. At the time of its publication, the piece caught my eye for a variety of reasons as a K-pop watcher. But also because, and I want to be really transparent here, that due to the state of journalism I now work in tech and am working on AI-related projects*. This has changed the way I feel about AI usage in many ways, but not necessarily changed the apprehension and generally conflicted feelings I have about the K-pop, music, and artistic industries approach to jumping onto web3 technologies without heeding the many creative and environmental concerns that plague many of these new technologies.

K-pop has always been a tech-motivated industry and early adopter of many tech developments (regardless of environmental impact), and profit-chasing after new technologies that may take off are going to happen whether we like it or not. This is probably best exemplified at the moment by how fast the virtual boy band PLAVE, not an AI group, has taken off: they're new tech darlings, and they're killing it. Other companies are probably gnashing their jaws that it's PLAVE and not their virtual artists or AI projects that are hitting it big.

PLAVE is a sign of how quickly K-pop adjusts to new tech. But the idea that Woozi, or really any K-pop artist, is creating with AI is a big "huh?" moment. Not because AI isn't being utilized in K-pop since we do know it is, but because there is frequently a lot of conflation of what is AI nowadays, and what's digital art, and it's honestly unclear what we're talking about when we talk about AI and K-pop.

There's a lot of upset around K-pop and gen AI, but it's not apparent that people are really even talking about the same sort of AI usage.

I want to take a step back, and explore the upset a bit for people who maybe aren't as avid K-pop watchers as I am. It's pretty straightforward: everytime content that fans believe to be AI shows up in a teaser video, music video, art, or otherwise, it causes consternation and even analysis of the industry. Such as this Red Velvet fan questioning if SM Entertainment was intentionally testing gen AI-created promo pics with more traditional photographic ones.

vivian ˚୨୧⋆｡ @universerene Why I think SM entertainment is using Red Velvet to do A/B testing on the general public's reception towards teaser images made using generative-AI; a thread 🧵 — Source

There are many reasons fans appear to get upset about AI in K-pop, ranging from concerns about diminishing the artistry – as we saw with the BBC and Woozi – to concerns about the environmental toll of AI usage, and that AI models have been confirmed to have been trained on stolen media and information. This is leading to a variety of lawsuits. But unless regulation would rapidly be created to figure out a way to put the cat back in the bag, and pay back creators whose works have been illegally used, this is the state of AI that we're operating in. And regulation may be an issue as AI continues to grow in popularity: some tech companies are already deciding they won't launch their models in the EU due to regulatory concerns.

All of these concerns and complaints are really, really important for people attempting to be conscious fansumers. But, despite or perhaps in spite of well-meaning fans, the K-pop industry doesn't really care because many of the things that make K-pop so fun and meaningful for fans are based in tech developments. SM Entertainment's NCT teams are in fact based on that: NCT stands for Neo Culture Technology, so it's not really a surprise that SM has been accused of using AI to fit in Taeyong into NCT 127's release cycle for Walk.

Tech is at the heart of many K-pop innovations, and always has been. That's why it is no surprise that Hybe has had heavy investment for years from and into tech companies, and was the first major company to release an artist's work transmuted by AI audio technology.

We've also seen ARTMS's creative director addressing why he used AI in their teaser images, claiming that it was to make an artistic point that fans allegedly missed.

These have all been really public instances of AI usage being perceived by fans, but here's where things get tricky, and what this long winded post is really all about. Fans seem quick to point out and decry AI, but it's uncertain what is or isn't AI nowadays.

In the BBC article, there's an interview with a fan who comments on a specific incident that she believes to be AI usage. By including it, I assume the writer of the story also believes it to be.

"Seventeen aren’t the only K-pop band experimenting with AI. Girl group Aespa, who have several AI members as well as human ones, also used the technology in their latest music video. Supernova features generated scenes where the faces of band members remain still as only their mouths move."

But the moment in aespa's "Supernova" music video with their mouths moving and their faces not? That doesn't seem to be generative AI, but rather artistic video editing used to segment their mouths from the rest of their face during editing.

Similarly with Woozi, it feels very ridiculous to call out one of K-pop's most prominent producers as if his entire discography is created by AI. For one thing, that's clearly not the case! Seventeen had very clearly used gen AI in the "Maestro" teaser, in a way that seemed to hint to them being critical of it as an art form. For another, there are very few ways at the moment that anyone, producer or not, would create a song entirely with AI and release it as their own artwork without needing to alter it immensely for it to feel anything other than the most reductive of sounds. Essentially, not much different than many songwriters already do with sample packs.

While AI music generation exists, like all generative AI content, it is amalgamation not creation. We'll very likely begin to hear AI-created sample packs or the like used in the future of popular music, but the end result of actual art creation will always rest in the hands and hearts of humans.

In fact, the South Korean government has determined that "AI-generated content created without creative intervention by humans," according to Yonhap. Essentially: Gen AI is not art, but can be used for art.

One of the only times I can recall any idol, or idols in this case, talking about generative AI being used for song creation, it was Suho of EXO and Belle of Kiss of Life talking about how songwriters are using ChatGPT for ideation. As a writer I have many thoughts about that and what it means for creative lyricism, but I guess whatever works to reduce writer's block is a good thing. But is this the same as someone writing a song with AI? I don't think so.

An image of Belle with screenshots of Suho's phone showing he has chatGPT on it. Belle's subtitle says "Pink Princess: You have ChatGPT" — Source

Deciding to be a conscious consumer of something and decrying what you don't like is admirable. Living under consumptive capitalism like we do, opting out is harder than opting in. Consumer understanding of AI and generative AI seems pretty weak generally, and among K-pop spaces it seems a bit like a red flag claim rather than an actual concern, leading to a lot of instances where people aren't quite sure what they're upset about. (Am I sure about what I'm even writing anymore? Unclear! See, we really don't know how to talk about AI in K-pop spaces.)

Generative AI isn't the same sort of tool that we've ever seen before for creatives, but it is a tool and only that: generating an image is one thing, but creating actual art? That takes creativity that a computer can't do. Almost all artists creating art with AI are creating art with AI, not just "prompting AI."

They're usually using photoshop and taking many different renditions of prompting to create one piece of art. The music videos and teaser photos we've seen from K-pop that use generative AI items in earnest do definitely seem a bit like a step into the future where it's going to be hard to tell what's real and fake on the internet, but when it comes to the futuristic aspect of K-pop, it's not surprising at all.

That said... If you're concerned about K-pop's usage of generative AI (and I believe we all should be to some degree), at least be aware of what is or isn't AI. Buy albums that don't feature the AI art, or let companies know you're not streaming when they use gen AI artistry. There are tells, you can research them.

Here's an interesting reddit thread featuring artistic perspective on AI usage for teaser images featuring many different perspectives but ultimately always getting back to the idea that training models on people's lifework without permission is bad. If K-pop fans really want to organize, this is the time.

So far, many of the uses of gen AI use in K-pop seems to be very purposeful, whether to make a point about the technology or to test it out on fans.

Other ones seem to be cost-cutting, which heaven only knows has screwed over many people as industries jump into AI without thinking of the human touch that makes them so special and important to people.

Because we can certainly expect more AI from K-pop companies this year, and probably for years to come if the technology continues to take off, even if merely because investors love it. That's how K-pop often works, afterall. But hopefully, hopefully, they use it to enhance, not replace. I don't have much faith when it comes to corporate cost-cutting, but artists of all sorts deserve their rights, recognition, and royalties.

More than general gen AI usage, the thing that I'm most-concerned about regarding K-pop and AI is that some K-pop companies are likely eyeing AI as a way to remove the humanity of stars; by doing so would reduce both costs and risks. This cannot be allowed.

Back to Plave, who are not AI generated but real people with green screens using virtual technology, it might seem like they're a replacement for a human group. But rather than that, it seems they're fitting into a totally different spot: virtual, animated idols that seem to appeal to many, particularly fans of animation and video games. They're also, which I feel especially excited about, giving a career to people who don't need to show their faces and go through the struggles of living in the limelight. Not everyone is built to be a celebrity, but through this PLAVE's voice actors can live the idol dream.

Additionally, there are rumors about their identities, which fans try to keep secret in consideration of the members themselves, and it's known they're likely formerly failed K-pop stars. A second chance at stardom without the major downsides of potentially being stalked or being unable to date? This isn't for everyone, but it could be for some people.

Update July 23 post-publishing: A reader reminded me that Big Ocean, a hard of hearing group, utilizes AI in order to create their music.

*Full disclosure that I am now working at a tech company that works in AI spaces, but I am in no way representing that or any other tech company here. All opinions are my own. I kindly ask that no PR reps or fans quote me or take anything out of context if/when I talk about AI in the future of Notes on K-pop. If you have any questions, please write a comment or email me: tamarhermanwrites@gmail.com.

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