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Ever since HYBE announced MIDNATT's debut into the K-pop idustry, fans have been pondered about whether or not it is the label's AI project. While many expected a full-fledged AI artist to roll out of the project, HYBE brings their own surprise to it.
Redebuting Lee Hyun, the label's long-running K-pop artist who's been housed under the company since 2005, the idol becomes the face of HYBE's first product in collaboration with Supertone, an AI voice synthesis company that the company acquired last year.
The collaboration makes MIDNATT the first part-AI artist whose voice is modified and altered in various ways to produce different tones, languages, and pitches, making a single artist diversely make music. The same is reflected in the MIDNATT's debut track, Masquerade, which has the idol singing not just in six languages but also in a female voice. While there have been many positive reactions to this new creation, negative ones naturally also land on the internet.
All you need to know about HYBE's first AI-produced K-pop idol, MIDNATT
What is Supertone?
To best understand the functions of the newest production from HYBE LABELS, one needs to understand the technology they leveraged. Last year, HYBE acquired the unique AI creation Supertone for $36 million, which was created by the machine learning expert, Lee Kyogu. Given its description as an AI voice synthesis company, its function is exactly that.
Though the technology can't create new voices, it can effortlessly reproduce the voices of already existing singers and can play around with the same to produce variations of the same. One's voice can be accurately and minutely adjusted to produce the required changes in high quality that best fit the expectations of the music creators. This was exactly what happened with MIDNATT's new track.
The producer of MIDNATT's debut track, Hitchhiker (Choi Jin-woo), which was produced with the help of Supertone alongside the use of Lee Hyun's voice, was able to put forth a song that was practically impossible through a single human voice. The track, Masquerade, was produced in Korean, English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese as the producer hand-mixed Lee Hyun's vocals into different languages.
Additionally, the second verse of the track also has a woman's voice, which was made by increasing the singer's pitch with the help of Supertone. Given that this stands as HYBE's first AI venture, label owner Bng Si-hyuk dished on the same in an interview with Billboard. He said:
"I have long doubted that the entities that create and produce music will remain human. I don’t know how long human artists can be the only ones to satisfy human needs and human tastes. And that’s becoming a key factor for my operation and a strategy for HYBE."
Lee Hyun and his new face as HYBE's MIDNATT
Veteran K-pop fans would be aware of Lee Hyun, who debuted under the label when it was still referred to as Big Hit Entertainment. The idol has ventured into several musical projects throughout his long career. He started off by participating in the coed K-pop group 8ight for around seven years.
After this, he moved to promote as one-half of the K-pop duo group Homme. Though his musical productions reduced over the years, he continued to appear in TV competitions that showcased his undying talent in singing.
While fans haven't gotten a glimpse of him in a while, his shocking comeback as MIDNATT was quite unexpected. Since there has been minimal expression from Lee Hyun with his latest venture into an AI project, fans have naturally been eager to hear his stance. In an email to Fast Company, he shared:
"While my new identity may feel unfamiliar to fans, my goal has always been to reach a global audience. Rising above the language barriers would be the first step in this journey."
MIDNATT's debut
On May 15, 2023, MIDNATT rolled out its debut as HYBE's first-ever AI-produced artist with Masquerade. The track reached a global audience in six languages, meeting the expectations of the project producers. T
he name of the artist has quite a dimensional nature of meaning. While it can be understood as "middle of the night" in Swedish, it can also be seen as "bare face" in Korean. Despite it being a collaborative debut, the artist still falls under HYBE LABEL's primary subsidiary, Big Hit Entertainment.
Fans express mixed reactions to HYBE's collaborative AI project
While there have been many positive reactions to HYBE's new venture, there has been more than a handful of opinions that expresses one's distaste towards the combination of AI with art. Many Twitter users wrote that replacing human talents with AI was not recommended since the matter was unsettling among K-pop fans.
While AI is often considered a futuristic event, people are unhappy with the early implementations of AI across several human fields that replacing the labor that people are paid to do. Since this venture will only continue to affect the artists who would want to establish themselves in the music industry and hinder their path of growth, people have been against MIDNATT's creation by HYBE.
However, once it was revealed that MIDNATT is an alter ego of Lee Hyun, fans have been much more supportive of the same. In this case, AI is used to enhance and better humans' musical creations, the reaction towards HYBE's new venture has taken a huge turn.
As debates continue to flood over the topic of MIDNATT's debut as HYBE's AI project, fans are unclear as to what stance one needs to take with the new face of Lee Hyun. Regardless, given that it's a new venture of an idol that fans have been supportive of for years now, they continue to send their love to the artists
