SEVENTEEN singer/producer WOOZI has responded to a British news feature claiming that the K-pop group is using artificial intelligence when recording its music. WOOZI, who also co-writes the group’s songs, reportedly had thoughts after a BBC News story posted last week claimed that SEVENTEEN’s most recent single, “Maestro,” was an example of the group’s dive into using artificial intelligence in the creative process.
The piece entitled “Will K-pop’s AI Experiment Pay Off?” noted that the song’s video has AI-generated scenes, with the outlet quoting WOOZI reportedly saying that he was “experimenting” with AI when making new music and that the group “practiced making songs with AI, as we want to develop along with technology rather than complain about it.”
According to NME, WOOZI posted a response on his Instagram Story on Sunday in which he said, “All of SEVENTEEN’s music is written and composed by human creators.” Korean outlet Newsis claimed that WOOZI’s original comments were taken out of context and what he said was: “I’ve tried writing and composing lyrics with AI, of course. Rather than complaining, I’ll practice in step with it. I’m looking for shortcomings and thinking about what strengths there are. Technology is advancing rapidly. I’m thinking about how to maintain our unique identity in that context. I thought that we had good chemistry because we were able to form a good sense of empathy while filming the music video with the directors.”
Newsis also quoted SEVENTEEN’s Pledis Entertainment label supporting WOOZI, saying, “It is not true that AI was used in Seventeen’s song lyrics, and we have conveyed our position to the foreign media outlets that reported on this to correct the content.”
In April, Soompi reported that while promoting the band’s new greatest hits album, 17 Is Right Here, WOOZI talked about practicing songwriting using AI to understand its pros and cons, but stressed that he was not using it at this time.
At press time a spokesperson for SEVENTEEN had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment.
The BBC later added an editor’s note to its story that refuted the claim about SEVENTEEN which reads: “This article was amended to confirm that while AI is being experimented with in K-pop, it was not used to write songs for the latest Seventeen album.“