HYBE Corporation is expanding rapidly, stretching its tendrils across the globe to pluck up new businesses at a dizzying pace. It’s best known for its roster of musicians — which now includes Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, BTS, and more — but it has also taken a serious interest in the gaming space, most recently investing in local developer Flint through its HYBE IM subsidiary.
Until just last month, the company’s tech arm was best known for producing two well-received mobile games: “Rhythm Hive,” a sort of guitar hero for your fingers, and “BTS Island: In the SEOM,” a tile-matching story game featuring the members of BTS as its main characters. But in May, HYBE IM joined forces with HYBE’s Big Hit music label to introduce a project called MIDNATT. Mystifying trailers furrowed brows as fans speculated whether the project would be the company’s first virtual or AI artist. Instead, it turned out that HYBE IM had leveraged artificial intelligence to help well-known Korean ballad singer Lee Hyun sing in six languages under a new alter ego and create a music video that employed cutting-edge extended reality tech.
It’s clear that HYBE IM does much more than gaming, so we spoke with CEO Wooyong Jung over Zoom to learn more about HYBE’s “techtainment” lab.
You started your career as a gaming programmer and have worked much of your life in gaming. How does that experience help you run HYBE IM?
I worked as a PD, or director, at local game companies including Neowiz and Nexus before becoming president of HYBE IM in 2022. When I first started in the gaming industry, I started as an engineer. That’s convenient because I’m good with the computer [laughs].
Engineering is applying scientific, economic, and social principles to practical knowledge to enrich mankind. That is what I have been applying in my work. At HYBE IM, we are working to expand the boundaries of the entertainment content industry by applying the latest interactive media technology solutions [to music]. It’s very similar to the social role of engineering, that is the kind of role that HYBE IM plays within the broader HYBE context. So all of the knowledge that I have acquired and learned over the years, starting as an engineer in the gaming industry is very helpful as I explore how to expand the essence of the content spectrum. I consider that experience to be a very valuable asset for me as I lead our business.
For HYBE as a group, the vision is to become an entertainment lifestyle platform. To realize this vision different functions are required. HYBE IM was spun off as a standalone entity, imbued with a specific vision of expanding the boundaries between entertainment and lifestyle through our work in interactive media art and interactive media technology. At the time we were spun off, we had 80 people. Within a year, our headcount has doubled. It’s now 170, so we’ve been growing very quickly. We require a lot of human talent, but because a lot of our projects are very well known for their [positive] outcomes, we have a lot of top talent applying for positions at HYBE IM. We’re expecting even faster growth going forward.
Do you still consider yourself a gamer? Do you have any time to game anymore?
Of course! I play a lot of “BTS Island” [laughs]. I’m serious, I am really into “BTS Island.” I’m on level 2600 or something.
Would it be accurate to say that, if someone in another division comes to HYBE IM with an idea, you find technology to make that possible? Or are there things that you’re developing internally that you then go and present to other divisions?
We do both. I think the latter — developing ourselves — carries a bigger weight.
That’s kind of a fun place to be, it sounds a little bit like a lab.
Yes, it is very fun. “IM” stands for interactive media. Other companies are really big into interactive media technology, and while we certainly are a group that is very knowledgeable, and good about using the technology, we are more of a creator group rather than taking a bigger focus on technology. I think that would be a more precise way of explaining ourselves.
Producer Hitchhiker worked for more than a decade at SM Entertainment before joining your team at HYBE IM in April last year. What was the thought process behind bringing him on?
We were acquaintances before ever discussing him possibly joining. He not only has a very accomplished career as a music producer but a very broad base of knowledge and interest in technology as well. If you look at his work, you can see different experimentation, and he applies a diverse range of technology throughout it to expand the boundaries of artistic expression.
We were just having a casual conversation and talking about the role of HYBE IM within HYBE, how we’re trying to extend the boundaries between entertainment lifestyle and content, and how we were a group of experts that work together towards that dream. And Hitchhiker was listening, and he said that it felt very similar to his personal goals and aspirations, that we’re actually on the same page. It’s hard to say who brought it up first, but there was a consensus, an understanding, that working together would be a very enjoyable experience.
On LinkedIn, Hitchhiker lists his role at HYBE IM as “Synergy Supervisor.” What does that mean?
In terms of the work we do within HYBE IM, the synergy between technology and art is very key. But there are many practical constraints. Somebody might have a very good understanding of the technology side but have difficulty communicating when talking about entertainment. It’s the same thing the other way around: Somebody might have a very deep understanding of entertainment but when talking about technology, it’s as if you need a translator to get both sides to understand each other. That’s the kind of working environment that we’re often exposed to [at HYBE IM]. Hitchhiker rings expertise on both ends, so we’re expecting him to be very helpful in driving synergy between the two sides.
How did you and Hitchhiker begin to work together on MIDNATT?
We were established in April last year, and then Hitchhiker joined us a little while after. It wasn’t that we had this project in mind, that he’ll come on and start the MIDNATT project as the first project. We just were able to confirm that his personal goals were aligned with HYBE IM’s, so the motivation was let’s just work together and we can try out anything.
Hitchhiker was involved from the very early design phase [of the MIDNATT project] in terms of direction. When we hear or think of MIDNATT, people think of the technology first, talking about how the pronunciation correction technology assisted to produce this multilingual track. There is a lot of focus on technology, but that is not the angle we had in mind. It wasn’t that we started with the technology and then wanted to find what kind of content we should use to fill up that technology. It started with the artist [behind MIDNATT] Lee Hyun, who was deep in thought. His hopes and desires were the starting point behind the project.
I was talking with the CEO of Big Hit Music at the time, and he told me that Lee Hyun was active on YouTube and that his fans would write replies to his video in languages that he did not understand. He was thinking of how he wanted to reach out to those fans. That was one thing. The second was that he was a long-established ballad singer in Korea, but as a music artist, he also wanted to try something new. Third, he wanted to link his past as the first signed music artist for HYBE [when it was originally Big Hit] with his present, and a future that he wanted to create. He wanted to find a new outlet and way of expressing his thoughts across this spectrum. So I heard of those three needs of this artist, and it occurred to me that we could apply our technology to help him achieve his dreams.
So there was a synergy between what the artist wanted to do, what you had available with Supertone, and what Big Hit music was interested in doing, and you all came together in the way that you’ve described. Basically, things become synergistic among different divisions.
That is right. At this conversation, it wasn’t that I immediately thought of applying Supertone for the project, but through the course of design we were exploring different types of technology that could be applied. Ultimately, we decided to go with Supertone. I think it’s a good case study that shows what kind of ideas can be generated by bringing together art with technology.
Earlier you said people have been focusing on the AI part of the MIDNATT project, and that’s partly my fault. I wrote about it and said specifically it was about the AI.
We are actually quite thankful for your write-up because it helped draw a lot more interest to MIDNATT. If that kind of interest can then link up with what the artist really wants to say, his actual narrative, I could wish for nothing more.
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MIDNATT’s music video for “Masquerade” was the first in Korea to use a kind of pre-visualization technology that is being used on a lot of movie sets to help actors and directors understand what the final scene will look like, even if they are using a greenscreen. Do you plan or hope to use that tech with other HYBE artists?
It’s not that since we have the technology now we’re going to find different places to apply it. That’s not our angle at all. We start with a focus on the story that each artist wants to tell, what kind of means they want to tell the story with, and if we find that a certain technology could help in terms of delivery, we would be ready to review possibly using it or not.
If we’re talking about MIDNATT’s music video, it makes total sense to use the technology. If it’s content that uses a lot of extended reality-type effects, there would be no reason for us not to use pre-visualization technology. But other content delivers more emotion when it’s raw, without the help of that technology. So, again, it depends. We’re always cautious not to approach the work we do with a focus on the technology at the start; we’re very guarded against that kind of approach.
A few weeks ago, I spoke to Joon Choi, CEO of fan-artist communication app Weverse, about the use of AI on the platform, and he was very clear that he did not want AI to replace or supersede the genuine interaction between fan and artist. I thought that was interesting because competing apps have used AI to replicate artists voices, for example. Your outlook on technology seems similar: artist first, technology second.
I speak with Mr. Choi on this topic quite often, and we have a very similar view. It’s always the artist and his or her story that comes first. HYBE IM’s technology or that of other partners, or a technology that might not exist yet, can help realize the artist’s story. By rising to that challenge, we can expand the range of what is possible.
Regarding the [AI-powered] multi-language pronunciation correction technology that was applied to MIDNATT’s, Supertone was very well known for this singing voice synthesis technology, but it had not developed this particular technology. At the initial phase, when we were first examining this project, we didn’t have that concrete idea of taking the [pronunciation correction] solution and overlaying it on the actual artist’s voice. But because we had a full understanding of what they were capable of, we looked at the existing lineup of technological capabilities that Supertone had, and then, later on in the process, we were able to apply those existing components to create this kind of new solution.
So again, the technology can be a means of helping the artist better articulate his or her own story. We can help enable something that could not have been possible, or possible but difficult, using technology. It’s a means to an end. It’s only something that can be used to make his or her story even richer.
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What’s a piece of technology that you’re excited to be playing with or exploring the opportunities of, personally?
At HYBE IM, because we are in the gaming “techtainment” industry, 3D graphics would be a natural choice, something that everybody at IM is looking at with great interest. We are looking at AR technology with a wide breadth and depth of interest as well. Personally, as an engineer, I always am interested in a wide spectrum of different technologies. My most recent thoughts are that I’m not necessarily looking at any particular sector within the larger technology space with greater interest over others, but because technology can achieve so much, I want to think about how much of that we should try to use to produce the most ideal result. Nowadays, I’m more interested in actual application, or how much of the available technology we should be using.
I’m worried about AI regulation, about making sure that we apply it in a way that isn’t letting it develop too fast or develop ahead of us.
If you look at history, technology has driven social advancement and growth. And there are three key factors that are always interlinked: technological advancements, utilization of technology, and then the underlying social consensus. I think the three pieces are always jockeying for position, and then somehow driving social developments.
The technological development cycle is becoming faster, so I think shaping social consensus is very important and has to be done quite quickly. I’m always cautiously thinking about and observing, “To what extent should different technology be used for us to arrive at that social consensus level?” In this age where technology is sometimes getting ahead of us, it’s a good idea to show people what is possible with these different technologies to direct more focus onto the positive aspects of it.
I was monitoring fan reception in reaction to the MIDNATT preview trailers, and many of them were upset to think that maybe MIDNATT was an AI artist. When it comes to that social consensus you’re talking about, it seems like fans are not as interested in an AI artist as some of the Western music industry think they might be.
We observed those reactions as well. But I think rather than whether it is an AI artist or not, more important is who the artist is talking to and what his or her story is. If you look at the content of the trailer, the music video, it’s about what kind of story that is trying to be delivered and who the listener is.
A lot of what you touched upon today, I think that we consider it to be very important for us. And we’re always mindful of these things when we carry out our business. Within the HYBE group, HYBE IM plays multiple roles, both as a creator and also as a coordinator and designer of different technologies. We try to be consistently applying clear standards as we approach our work.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
