South Korean entertainment giants are engaged in a new experiment of staging virtual K-pop music artists with the help of artificial intelligence technology.

SM Entertainment Co., the agency behind NCT, Girls’ Generation, and other K-pop superstars, is preparing for the global debut of a virtual singer, named Nævis, Lee Sung-su, the co-chief executive officer of the entertainment firm, told Maeil Business Newspaper in an interview on Wednesday.

Nævis already has been making a number of appearances as a graphic image in girl group Aespa’s music videos but it is now being developed to transform into a virtual human, Lee said, adding that Nævis will make musical performances and talk with fans in her own voice created based on those of 12 different real human voice actors.

Nævis will make her global debut at the South by Southwest music festival in Texas, U.S., in March, via Aespa VR Concert at Kwangya, Aespa’s first-ever virtual reality concert.

The VR concert will feature virtual reality gears for fans to meet Nævis as well as digital versions of Aespa members in the 8K ultra-high definition display.

Other entertainment agencies are also expanding to the virtual world.

MAVE:, a group of four virtual female singers created by Metaverse Entertainment Inc, a subsidiary of game developer Netmarble Corp., and Kakao Entertainment Co., made a de on Wednesday.

Each of the four virtual K-pop singers has her own personal story, appealing to the fans just as in the real world.

By Jung Joo-won and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]