Fan Chant: How Okay-pop Labels Are Preventing AI

Welcome again to Fan Chant, a weekly column for Okay-pop followers, stans, and newbies alike. This week, some information from HYBE about efforts to push again on AI in efforts to guard artists. If you take pleasure in what you’re studying, be at liberty to subscribe to my companion publication to get Fan Chant delivered proper to your inbox every week!

On February twenty sixth, HYBE (the corporate house of BTS, LE SSERAFIM, and a variety of different Okay-pop acts) introduced a brand new tentpole of their efforts to fight AI deepfakes, which have elevated in reputation throughout a number of sectors of the leisure trade. In response to an announcement from the leisure big, the Memorandum of Understanding sees HYBE teaming up with Korea’s Northern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Company to fight the rise of deepfakes and their linked cybercrimes.

The parents at HYBE are not any strangers to artist safety. Along with proactive measures, the 360 label and administration firm usually fields experiences from followers to make sure an ear to the bottom on libel or probably damaging info circulating. However this particular police company is very famend in South Korea; in keeping with the assertion, the parents on this department are notably famend for his or her experience, and the unit was lately acknowledged because the nation’s main cybercrime unit.

The transfer may be seen as an encouraging step from an organization inside an trade that always sees girls disproportionately affected by defamation and on-line hate campaigns. This instantly intersects with the truth that deepfakes may be leveraged for insidious functions in opposition to girls, leaving them particularly weak to the unfold of synthetic creations. In September of 2024, a number of different South Korean companies — together with JYP Leisure, YG Leisure, and Dice Leisure — started cracking down on deepfake pornography, most of which focused their feminine artists.

“As artists face elevated vulnerability to on-line crimes as a result of speedy creation and distribution of deepfake movies, the memorandum consists of swift motion in opposition to offenders, together with expedited arrests and the launch of a devoted hotline for reporting such crimes in Korea, strengthening total efforts to guard artists from on-line exploitation,” reads the discharge across the new memorandum.

South Korean firms aren’t the one ones pushing again in opposition to this particular challenge. In July of 2024, certainly one of Hollywood’s prime legislation corporations, Venable LLP — whose shoppers embrace Taylor Swift — launched a particular service known as Takedown particularly devoted to focusing on deepfake content material. A bipartisan invoice, titled NO FAKES (Nurture Artwork, Foster Artwork, Hold Leisure Protected) was launched to the US Senate in 2024 with the aim of defending “the voice and visible likeness of all people from unauthorized computer-generated recreations from generative synthetic intelligence (AI) and different applied sciences.”

Nevertheless, in keeping with a report from US cybersecurity firm Safety Hero, Okay-pop stars are particularly in danger. Their 2023 research provided a surprising statistic: 53% of the people featured in deepfake pornography have been South Korean singers or actresses. The steps firms like HYBE are taking are promising, however the information speaks for itself — the journey forward is lengthy, and the work has solely simply begun.

Reminder: Inform Me the Most Underrated Okay-Pop Track of All Time

CIX (photograph courtesy of C9 Leisure)

I’ve cherished listening via a number of the responses I’ve already obtained however would like to hold gathering submissions for essentially the most underrated Okay-pop tune of all time. Submit yours right here!

Track Rec of the Week:

Hear, I do know I already mentioned this about “Egocentric Waltz,” which stays the precedence, however…what’s a lady acquired to do to get this gem again on the set checklist for the subsequent ATEEZ tour?