"What's truly impressive is that the chat flows like a real dialogue." Kpopmap, a website specializing in K-pop (South Korean pop), was able to chat with the avatar of rapper Mark Tuan, created using artificial intelligence (AI) and officially unveiled on Friday, July 21. "Digital Mark" turned out to be truer than life. His responses are produced with ChatGPT's AI. He can read facial expressions and react accordingly – with humor, for example – to his conversation partner's mood.
But the character is just one of the new products created by the K-Pop sector using AI. The industry is working feverishly to develop virtual stars and groups that are more flexible to "use" than humans, and above all more interesting economically, or even artistically.
"Eternity only feeds on electricity," said Park Ji-eun, head of Pulse9, in her offices not far from Seoul City Hall. In March 2021, her start-up launched the female band Eternity. Its 11 members were created following a competition that designated the most beautiful among 101 faces drawn by artificial intelligence (AI), using millions of photos. Pulse9 then produced the first videos with the star agency The Muse. "At first, it was difficult because the faces appeared frozen. There was a lot of criticism," said Ji-eun. Today, Eternity's videos seem surprisingly realistic.
For the time being, Pulse9's avatars have not entirely ousted real artists. "We still need humans for choreography or meetings with fans, essential in the life of a K-pop group. For Zae-in, the group's star, we use 10 actors and dancers. But our next goal is to do everything by computer," said Ji-eun. She promised a first song entirely produced by AI for Eternity's concert in Seoul in October.
Eternity illustrates the speed of progress of AI, which offers infinite possibilities. There is no longer any need to train young people for years in academies, who may then have physical problems or ultimately disappoint.
The viriual is not new. Digital doubles of flesh-and-blood stars already exist. In fact, for their proponents, they are every bit as appealing as purely virtual characters, with real stars still playing their role as trend-setters.
By 2022, five of K-pop's most popular groups were offering metaverse platform incarnations. That is the case of Aespa, the female group of entertainment giant SM Entertainment. The global market for avatars and digital characters could be close to $527.6 billion in sales by 2030, compared with $10.03 billion in 2020, according to analyst firm Emergen Research.
You have 56.13% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.