Artificial intelligence company Pulse9 creates South Korea’s most active virtual humans

Her visage is a product of deepfake technology, her physical presence belonging to a team of actors of similar proportions. Nevertheless, she performs singing, delivers the news, and promotes luxury fashion on television, embodying the growing prevalence of AI-generated humanoids in South Korea.

Allow us to introduce you to Zaein, one of South Korea’s most active virtual humans, masterminded by Pulse9, an artificial intelligence company dedicated to realizing the corporate aspiration of a flawless employee.

Pulse9 has crafted digital humans for some of South Korea’s most significant conglomerates, including Shinsegae. Research suggests that the global market for these lifelike creations could swell to $527 billion by 2030.

In South Korea, AI-generated humans have enrolled as students at universities, interned at major corporations, and become regular fixtures on live television, driving product sellouts spanning everything from food to luxury handbags.

However, Pulse9 insists this is just the tip of the iceberg. Park Ji-eun, CEO of the company, told AFP that they are “working on developing the technology to broaden AI human use.” She added, “Virtual humans are basically capable of carrying out much of what real people do,” though she acknowledged that for now, humans are still indispensable due to the limitations of current AI technology.

The initial demand for AI-generated humans in South Korea was catalyzed by the K-pop industry, with the concept of a virtual idol—immune to scandals and capable of working around the clock—garnering popularity among the industry’s notoriously demanding music agencies. Now, Pulse9 aims to “expand their roles in society to show that these virtual humans aren’t just fantasy idols but can coexist with humans as colleagues and friends,” Park noted.

Zaein’s facial features were generated through deep learning analysis, a method teaching computers to process complex data, using the faces of K-pop stars spanning the past two decades. Her deepfake is superimposed onto a human actor, and more than ten actors with diverse talents—singing, dancing, acting, reporting—contribute to animating Zaein, making her a “special” AI creation, according to Park.

One Monday morning, AFP met with one of the actors as she prepared to deliver a news report in the persona of Zaein on a live morning news show on South Korean broadcaster SBS. The actor, who remains anonymous due to company policy, expressed enthusiasm about the opportunity, describing it as valuable practice for those aspiring to become celebrities.

Pulse9 maintains strict confidentiality regarding the identities of its human actors. Despite these measures, the actor revealed that embodying a virtual human has opened up new possibilities for her, offering challenges and opportunities she might not have encountered otherwise.

Creating artificial humans will continue to rely on real people “until a really strong AI is created in the future, which will be able to process everything by itself,” Park asserted. While AI has the potential to enrich lives when properly regulated, concerns about deepfakes and their capacity to blur the line between reality and fiction have emerged.

Professor Kim Myuhng-joo, an information security expert at Seoul Women’s University, noted the concerns regarding deepfake technology, emphasizing that it can be a potent tool when used maliciously or to deceive. Thus, he highlighted the growing concern surrounding its application.