A new all-AI female pop group called LUMINA has emerged in South Korea, with the virtual act's debut music video drawing more than 3 million views, the website infohub.kz reports.
The project concept was developed by a team at Samsung Securities, while the song Override, the music video and the looks of the four members were generated by artificial intelligence, The Straits Times writes.
What sets LUMINA apart from earlier virtual groups such as MAVE or PLAVE is that those acts had real performers and vocalists behind their avatars, whereas the new project was created entirely by neural networks. The company did not register copyright for the track: under South Korean rules, music without human creative input is not eligible for such protection.
In its videos, the company prominently states that the characters are fictional and that all financial advice undergoes a three-stage review by its in-house specialists.
The virtual singers will go on to release new tracks, take part in challenges and produce educational videos for investors.
Park Sang-chul, chairman of the South Korean Singers Association, noted that neural networks help cut costs but warned of the threat to songwriters, session musicians and models. According to him, artificial intelligence will not be able to replace live performances and direct interaction between artists and their audiences.