South Korea to bring back superstar Kim Kwang-Seok's vocal performance using AI

A South Korean national broadcaster on January 25 announced that it will recreate the vocals of a popular deceased South Korean superstar Kim Kwang-Seok using artificial intelligence (AI) in a television programme Competition of the Century: AI vs Human. The show is scheduled to air later this week. SBS will bring back the late folk singer on stage artificially for his fans, following the footsteps of music channel Mnet that aired the show One More Time, using AI-generated voices. The broadcasters plan to clone Kwang-Seok's voice from the real songs with synthetic vocals, produced from a set of computerised algorithms. According to sources of CNN, this wouldn’t be the first time that the country’s music streaming services and the national broadcasters have turned to the analytics of machine learning to bring LIVE performances from the demised rockstars on a musical event. 

After nearly 25 years since his death, the influential frontman of the folk band Dongmulwon will be revived with expressive voice-overs that will be digitally translated to melodious songs in his AI voice clone. Earlier, the famous K-Pop superstars BTS performed online using the AI version of a late pioneering singer from experimental rock music, Shin Hae-Chul. The rock legend’s agency also teamed up with a local film company to produce a biopic in remembrance of the singer’s tumultuous life.

The musical fanatics, however, raised ethical issues against South Korea’s Big Hit Entertainment's artists including BTS and TXT about resurrecting the demised singers’ voices. Many in the South Korean music industry objected to cloning vocal performances using artificial intelligence and hologram technology, which has also raised copyright issues. Although, the AI performances have also cherished some long-standing fans willing to hear their favourite dead artists perform LIVE in decades. 

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[Street in South Korea Daegu dedicated to Kim Kwang Seok. Credit: Twitter/@lilmeowmeow_al]

[ Kim Kwang Seok street in South Korea. @lilmeowmeow_al]

Legendary rock star Kim Kwang-seok 

Aged 31, the South Korean folk band artist passed away in 1996 under mysterious circumstances. His death shocked the world as fans suspected homicide, even as a probe identified the cause of his death as a suicide. The late singer was back in the headlines in 2017 after the death of his daughter, which was allegedly concealed by Kwang-Seok's widow for at least a decade. According to the Korean Herald, the South Korean police opened a probe into the girl’s death from 10 years ago on a formal complaint of Kim’s elder brother Kim Kwang-bok and a local reporter, Lee Sang-ho. 

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