Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of K-pop powerhouse HYBE, speaks at Bloomberg Screentime in Los Angeles, Oct. 12 (local time). Courtesy of Bloomberg Screentime

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into Korea's multi-billion-dollar K-pop industry is no longer a question of "if," but "when." Industry giants like HYBE and SM Entertainment are charging full-throttle into this technological revolution, but the rise of AI in music production is not without its controversies.

Bang Si-hyuk, the mastermind behind the Grammy-nominated boy band, BTS, and the chairman of Korea's biggest-selling K-pop label, HYBE, recently revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a key factor for his operation and strategy. During an interview with the American magazine, Billboard, the 51-year-old said he has long wondered if human artists will remain as the only entities to produce music that caters to people's needs and tastes.

Bang is only one of many people who believe AI will reshape the future of the K-pop industry. He has been striving to incorporate the state-of-the-art AI technology into music, as evidenced by the launch of a project called "Midnatt" in May.

Midnatt, an alter ego of HYBE's male singer Lee Hyun, rolled out the digital single, "Masquerade," in Korean. However, thanks to the AI-powered pronunciation correction technology, the tune was available in six different languages, including English, Spanish and Vietnamese. It also featured the female voice of Lee, which was created through voice designing technology.

The project was spearheaded by HYBE's interactive media arm, HYBE IM, and AI audio tech startup, Supertone. HYBE acquired the latter for 45 billion won ($36.5 million) in January.

"We tried to utilize AI without distorting our artist's voice and message," HYBE IM CEO Chung Woo-yong said during a press event in Seoul in May. Noting that his company will pursue both technological enhancements and musical authenticity, the CEO added that it plans to team up with other artists under HYBE's roof in the future.

Not to be outdone, K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment, home to A-list stars like NCT and aespa, has also jumped on the AI bandwagon. It plans to unveil an AI-produced virtual singer ― Naevis ― in 2024 for the first time in its 30-year history, adding more diversity to its roster of artists.

Naevis is already a familiar name to most K-pop fans, as the virtual female character was frequently featured in the promotional content of girl group aespa as its helper. Although details are still being kept under wraps, SM's former CEO Lee Sung-soo hinted that the label will work at full capacity to make Naevis look flawless in terms of movement, voice and communication skills.

The human members of K-pop girl group aespa and their digital avatars / Courtesy of SM Entertainment

SM also debuted aespa in 2020, which is composed of four human members ― Karina, Winter, Giselle and Ningning ― and their AI-created digital selves. Known as the first metaverse group in the K-pop universe, aespa even brought their hyper-realistic avatars to the LED screen during its first solo concert in February, dancing in sync with the virtual alter egos as they performed hits like "Girls" (2022) and "Black Mamba" (2020).

But today, some concerts do not involve human artists, as seen in the case of virtual girl group Eternity ― also known as IITERNITI. The 11-piece act, which debuted with the single, "I'm Real" in 2021, staged its first solo concert in Gwangmyeong, on the outskirts of Seoul, Oct. 14-15. By fusing music and immersive media art, the show invited the audience to a new hybrid world where they could witness a compelling combination of reality and virtual reality.

"Virtual idols will continue to emerge," music critic Kim Do-heon told The Korea Times. "As of now, many of them still cling to the K-pop system and perform the songs written by K-pop songwriters. But if they further utilize AI technology in the creative process of their music, they are likely to make another breakthrough."

A scene from virtual girl group Eternity's October concert / Courtesy of Pulse 9

Unresolved issues

While AI offers new possibilities, it also raises concerns.

AI has been gaining traction in the realm of music composition. There has been a surge in the number of AI composers like EvoM (Evolutionary Music), which can produce music in just a few minutes using vast training data.

Although some critics point out that the general quality of AI's creations are not yet comparable to those of human beings, they are gradually broadening their horizons beyond background music.

"It seems the songs by Korean AI composers need more digging into melodies, progressions and lyrics," Kim, the music critic, noted. "But as evidenced by the case of Google's AI-based text-to-music model, Music LM, the technology is growing at a fast pace abroad and it can now generate music of a specific genre or a vibe you want."

AI, however, is an unwelcome guest for some human composers.

The Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), a non-profit copyright collective for musical works that has more than 47,000 members nationwide, asserts that AI could disrupt the music industry.

"A lot of people prefer AI-made songs because they are often free to use," an official at KOMCA told The Korea Times.

"Given that AI songwriters can produce music very quickly without big restraints, it is taxing for their human counterparts to go head-to-head with them."

Chu Ga-yeoul, chairman of the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) / Yonhap

If AI composers reign supreme, they can bring chaos to the music industry, the association explained.

"If AI-made tracks take over the music scene, they can pose a threat to the livelihood of human composers who will see a significant fall in income," the association said. "Since they lack legal protection at the moment, AI's dominance can deal a critical blow to them and we may even witness technology's encroachment on the territory of culture."

KOMCA believes Korea should introduce stricter regulations and laws on AI, calling for clear guidelines to tackle the thorny issues of copyright infringement and plagiarism.

"As AI studies large databases of music, it can violate the copyright of the composers who wrote the original songs," the KOMCA official said.

"We also do not have clear criteria to decide whether AI has committed plagiarism and that is why we think its developers should be required to disclose which songs they used as training data. These people should give copyright holders the fair compensation they deserve."

There is another hot-button issue: AI composers cannot receive any music royalty based on the current copyright law, as it only recognizes human creations as copyrighted materials. But what if AI collaborates with a human partner? KOMCA believes it can trigger another dispute over the ownership of copyright, given that there is no law about such cases.

"We need more laws regarding the copyright of AI-produced songs," Kim, the music critic, pointed out. "And now it is time to bring this issue to the table. Since we do not have many references at home and abroad, we first have to scrutinize different cases to come up with adequate solutions."