By Aiden J. Hwang

Adjunct professor of global music industry 

Graduate School of Culture and Arts, Dongguk University

A K-pop act requires several stages to launch. In case of idol stars, they need many years of training before joining a group to debut with. 

Based on a group's characteristics and image, the artist & repertoire team collects songs from songwriters and a producer creates customized songs for them. The choreography and styling teams design dance programs, costumes and make-up that match the songs. Later, public relations, marketing and management staff team up to announce the group's debut, take the lead in its activities and strive for success on the music market.

This formula, however, has begun to change since the appearance of something called artificial intelligence (AI). For example, MAVE:, an AI-based girl group of Kakao Entertainment, debuted last year on Jan. 25 with the single "Pandora." Comprised of members Marty, Tyra, Zena and Siu, this digital act belongs to Metaverse Entertainment, a subsidiary of the video game company Netmarble. MAVE: is a fully digital act whose members are powered by AI. They are not humans but a virtual idol group. Of course, the conventional formula of forming an idol group does not apply here. 

Another example is PLAVE. Though slightly different from MAVE:, this boy band is a good example of the AI-initiated change. The five-member virtual group of the high-tech entertainment agency Vlast consists of Eunho, Bamby, Yejun, Noah and Hamin. In March, this group hit No. 1 on the MBC music chart program "Show! Music Core" with the single "Way 4 Luv." The difference with human idol groups is that PLAVE's characters have real people behind the characters. The voices, moves and dances of these "unknown people" are reflected in each character. Though not a complete virtual AI group, it is the opposite of the conventional method of K-pop idols being led by humans in the front with their virtual characters active online.

Going further, ordinary people are also starting to create any desired virtual character online. For example, they can use the AI art creator program SeaArt to randomly make images of group members. Once the overall concept and mood are set, the program Soundraw creates songs suitable for the group and Chat GPT can write the lyrics. 

Despite spatial limitations because of cyberspace, anyone can use basic AI to create an image of a K-pop idol, write a song, and even create styling choreography.

Technological advancement inevitably lowers production cost to allow more players to enter, ultimately shaping the overall industry. K-pop is no exception. Though still in its infancy, the "monster" known as AI poses a major threat to the genre, in which acts cannot produce music let alone survive without large capital. Thus AI is expected to accelerate an era in which K-pop acts flood the market and create attractive groups at ultra-low cost, thus raising the risk of a tectonic shift on the level of a nuclear bomb on the market.

"We thought that a virtual idol group would have an edge over a solo artist, and there were many reasons for this," said Olivia Oh, strategic intellectual property (IP) and task force leader of MAVE: at the Music Content Division of Kakao Entertainment Corp., to Rolling Stone magazine in May last year. 

"First, a group can present more dynamic choreography and gripping performances. Second, having multiple members gave us more to work with in terms of creating the group's universe and storyline, not to mention IP scalability and communicating with fans. We also thought that a girl group would give us more opportunities to diversify and amplify the visual details, such as outfits and hairstyles."

This phenomenon also applies to many other areas, not just K-pop. News articles have commonly posted the jobs expected to disappear in the era after in the AI era. Yet at this juncture, considering AI an eventual foe of K-pop seems a bit of a stretch.

First, the essence of music lies in human emotion. By definition, music is the sound of the human voice or a musical instrument or a combination of sounds to create emotions like beauty, joy, excitement, sentiment, happiness and sadness. In other words, the origin of music is emotion. Even if AI can someday learn even human emotion, the highly likely scenario is that music created by humans will be deemed "real music" with originality. This is similar to the passion for luxury goods marked by scarcity and the philosophy of the creator, no matter if the functional value is the same.

Even if an era comes where AI can one day learn even human emotions, it is highly likely that music created by real people will be treated as real music with 'originality'. It is the same way that we are passionate about ‘luxury goods’ that embrace scarcity and the philosophy of the creator, no matter how much the same functional value may be.

Furthermore, AI technology can conversely be used to find talents yet undiscovered. AI can help save massive cost if used accurately when writing songs, creating dance choreography or putting on a performance. This will present a bigger opportunity for those talented in songwriting, choreography or styling who cannot display their skills due to lack industry connections or know-how. More easily accessible AI can offer more opportunities to people to fully express their artistic talents.

Technological development always changes the shape of society. The development of information and communications technology is why communications fees are no longer expensive. Advances in transportation have reduced limitations on where to live. Problems arose from each process, but they were wisely overcome so that everyone could enjoy the fruits.

The AI era is an inevitable reality. Thus the next task is to gather wisdom to use new AI technologies to improve human life and minimize damage as much as possible.

A rational legal system and large-scale awareness campaign to minimize damage are sorely needed given the potential dangers of AI such as copyright violations, moral decline and destruction of humanity, plus the results must be maximized. Humanity has kept up progress based on technological development, so whether AI is friend or foe is in the hands of people.

Since 2022, professor Hwang has taught the global music industry at Dongguk University in Seoul. He is also a former public relations manager of JYP Entertainment and was once a journalist for the daily Joongang Ilbo.

Translated by Korea.net staff writer Yoon Sojung