K-pop fans are well-known as a force to be reckoned with on the internet, with some fans holding fierce allegiances and passions when it comes to specific artists. On social media, some obsessive fans are using generative AI to create what is essentially self-insert fan-fiction—creepy videos and images of themselves kissing, cuddling and getting various kinds of lovey-dovey with their favorite idols. The result is a contemporary, tech-powered mutation of idol culture that takes fan art to new extremes, and many people in K-pop fan communities are understandably pretty upset about it.
Users on Reddit and various K-pop forums have expressed outrage at these deepfake fantasies, calling on other fans to report those who use AI tools to generate nonconsensual videos of their K-Pop heartthrobs. In one thread on the K-pop Uncensored subreddit, a user posted redacted screenshots from an AI-generated video by another fan showing themselves being hugged and kissed on the cheek by Keonho from the boy group CORTIS, who is a minor. “Some fans may think it’s harmless but if you tolerate this, you’re opening doors to much worse things in the future,” Reddit user wbu_lizzie wrote in the thread. “The idols didn’t consent to this, they are real people living their lives, not a bunch of wattpad / ao3 characters.”
“People have been cutting and pasting these kind[s] of things forever but the more realistic the images get the more dicey it gets psychologically,” wrote user Goldie_Prawn, in another thread on K-pop Uncensored calling out AI usage. “I think even with traditional photoshop the work and skill required gives some level of mental buffer to the creator that isn’t there with AI.”
Dr. Sarah Keith, a professor at MacQuarie University in Australia who has done extensive research on K-pop fandom, says that the AI deepfake videos come from a long legacy of fan-created content that goes far beyond the world of K-pop. Fan fiction and art have always been an essential component of fan culture, and while these creations often skirt the boundaries of copyright, they are generally not viewed as creepy or exploitative. But with the advent of generative AI tools that can quickly create realistic images and videos of real people, Silicon Valley has built a technical workaround for the law and the social norms of consent.
“K-pop fans (like all pop culture fans) have long been active producers of fan materials about their preferred idols. However, these to date have not been ‘convincing’ as artefacts that might have involved the idol themselves,” Keith told 404 Media. “It’s a parallel issue involving both fans and AI tools. Because of these two factors, there is now an increased facility for fans to create large volumes of content, which do not respect the idols’ personal integrity, and which can be distributed online in ways that undermine the idols’ reputation (e.g. sexualized deepfakes).”
While many fans spoke out against these creepy behaviors, others pointed the blame at the K-pop industry’s business model that encourages parasocial fandom while exploiting many artists and fans alike.
“This is a sad side effect of an industry that for years [has] pushed parasocial relationships on their fans,” wrote Serious-Wish4868, in a thread on r/kpopthoughts about the AI-powered sexualization of idols. “When idols and companies are constantly pushing you to live out your romantic and sexual fantasies with idols in everything they do from social media posts to live interactions, what do [you] expect to happen?”
But some of the entertainment agencies that manage K-pop artists—and the artists themselves—have expressed they’re not happy about the situation either. Members of hugely popular K-pop groups like BTS and Tomorrow X Together have spoken out against the use of generative AI to create digital simulacra using artists’ likenesses. In March, OA Entertainment, a label founded by and representing Blackpink member Jennie, warned in a press statement that it would begin taking “strong legal action, including civil and criminal proceedings, against any acts that infringe upon the artist’s reputation, rights, portrait rights, and other intellectual property rights.” The statement came in response to harassment and stalking incidents involving the artists, and heavily implied the issue of AI-generated content without naming it explicitly.
At the same time, many of these idol talent companies are embracing generative AI tools as a vehicle for cutting costs throughout the industry. SM Entertainment, one of the biggest labels in Korea which represents major acts like Girls Generation and Super Junior, has described generative AI integration as a core part of its business strategy, and last year it released a fully AI-generated music video for the girl group Aespa. And last December, the K-pop world saw the launch of a fully synthetic idol group called GLXE (pronounced “galaxy”), which combines AI-generated songs with uncanny AI avatars.
“They’d automate the whole industry if they could make money,” Lindsey Knuth, a K-pop fan and associate editor at Tangle News, told 404 Media. “Pornographic deepfakes of minor idols is an issue, as is the industry’s (lack of) response, to me.”
The cultural tolerance for fan-generated AI slop varies depending on region and context. South Korea currently ranks number one in consumption of AI slop content, as the country’s tech industry pushes adoption and cultural acceptance of the technology. In the US, however, polling consistently shows that the majority of young people have extremely negative opinions of AI tools and AI-generated content—and are becoming more and more anti-AI as jobs, schools, and institutions pressure or force them to use it.
Keith notes that while labels and talent companies have always been very active in protecting artists and their reputations, they only do so from the perspective of protecting an investment. Fans, on the other hand, generally tend to be more emotionally invested and likely to defend idols as human beings, both from creepy fans and from the companies themselves.
And like with AI and tech more generally, the lack of technical or legal safeguards against the technology’s many well-documented harms has made social shaming one of the only effective deterrents against abusive behavior in the K-pop world.
“It’s reassuring that many fans are openly calling out non-consensual uses of AI and deepfakes, because in the absence of technical guardrails on this kind of content, social acceptability is really what’s important,” said Keith. “So yes, it is reassuring that many active fans online are building a culture of respect where idols’ likenesses are not used in non-consensual ways.”
