Welcome again to Fan Chant, a weekly column for Ok-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 get pleasure from 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 dwelling of BTS, LE SSERAFIM, and plenty of different Ok-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 business. In keeping with an announcement from the leisure large, 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 aren’t any strangers to artist safety. Along with proactive measures, the 360 label and administration firm often fields experiences from followers to make sure an ear to the bottom on libel or doubtlessly damaging info circulating. However this particular police company is very famend in South Korea; in accordance with the assertion, the oldsters on this department are significantly famend for his or her experience, and the unit was just lately acknowledged because the nation’s main cybercrime unit.
The transfer could be seen as an encouraging step from an organization inside an business that usually sees ladies disproportionately affected by defamation and on-line hate campaigns. This straight intersects with the truth that deepfakes could be leveraged for insidious functions towards ladies, leaving them particularly susceptible to the unfold of synthetic creations. In September of 2024, a number of different South Korean businesses — 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 because of the fast creation and distribution of deepfake movies, the memorandum consists of swift motion towards offenders, together with expedited arrests and the launch of a devoted hotline for reporting such crimes in Korea, strengthening general efforts to guard artists from on-line exploitation,” reads the discharge across the new memorandum.
South Korean corporations aren’t the one ones pushing again towards this particular problem. In July of 2024, one in all Hollywood’s prime legislation companies, Venable LLP — whose purchasers embrace Taylor Swift — launched a selected service known as Takedown particularly devoted to focusing on deepfake content material. A bipartisan invoice, titled NO FAKES (Nurture Artwork, Foster Artwork, Preserve Leisure Secure) 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 accordance with a report from US cybersecurity firm Safety Hero, Ok-pop stars are particularly in danger. Their 2023 examine supplied a stunning statistic: 53% of the people featured in deepfake pornography had been South Korean singers or actresses. The steps corporations like HYBE are taking are promising, however the knowledge speaks for itself — the journey forward is lengthy, and the work has solely simply begun.
Reminder: Inform Me the Most Underrated Ok-Pop Music of All Time
CIX (photograph courtesy of C9 Leisure)
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Music Rec of the Week:
Hear, I do know I already stated this about “Egocentric Waltz,” which stays the precedence, however…what’s a lady acquired to do to get this gem again on the set listing for the subsequent ATEEZ tour?
