naevis prepares for AI-powered rebirth as SM plots new portal to virtual fandoms

[INTERVIEW]

Remember naevis?

In 2021, SM Entertainment proved it could build a virtual singer when the “artificial emotional intelligence” avatar was introduced as aespa’s digital ally, before she made a full-fledged debut with the single “Done” in 2024.

Two years later, the harder question is not whether naevis can sing and dance like a real idol — but why fans should care that she can, as the public interest in naevis appears to have barely outlasted the initial fascination.

“Simply using technology to transfer existing media content into a new format is a limited approach, one that belongs to a transitional period,” Studio Realive CEO Jay Kim, also known as Kim Jong-min, told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview on the sidelines of MU:CON conference on Thursday.

“We can move into the future only when we offer experiences that existing media cannot.”

Studio Realive, a technology subsidiary of SM Entertainment, operates naevis. The company was founded in 2022 as Studio Kwangya, a metaverse-focused arm of SM Entertainment, before rebranding to its current name in 2023.

Studio Realive’s task is not only to bring cutting-edge technology into K-pop content but also to devise how such technology can justify its presence.

When it comes to naevis, Kim attributes her initial difficulty in building a core fandom to technological capability preceding actual demand.

“The virtual artist market is at a stage where potential and difficulty coexist,” Kim said. “With naevis, I feel that the idea, ‘We can make a real-life-like virtual artist,’ came before the question, ‘How can she communicate with fans as an artist?’”

Merely using the latest technology to transfer existing media into a new format does not create new value, Kim said. That is why Studio Realive is working to identify a distinctive fan experience that only naevis can offer — enabled by the rapid progress of AI over the past few years.

“Even before AI took off, naevis was first introduced as an AI agent bridging the gap between the virtual world and reality,” Kim said, adding that this premise could become central to reshaping naevis’s appeal in the era of generative AI.

“So I believe you may be able to meet a slightly different form of naevis starting next year.”

Kim first joined Studio Realive as the chief creative officer in 2024. His career has focused on immersive content, as he co-founded the immersive content production company GiiOii Studio and has served as a curator for extended reality (XR) content at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and as a professor at Korea National University of Arts.

Kim describes Studio Realive as “a company responsible for SM Entertainment’s future,” identifying the company’s three main business pillars as virtual entertainment, which includes virtual artists such as naevis and Kiepi, a Japanese virtual duo launched early this year; virtual reality (VR) concerts, most notably through its VR concert brand Lynkpop that recently launched a VR screening of Stray Kids’s “dominATE” concert in Japan; and immersive spaces, where visitors can experience interactive content in physical venues.

Studio Realive has yet to launch a physical venue dedicated to such immersive experiences, but a project is currently under development.

All three pillars, Kim explained, point toward a single shared experience in what he described as a universe.

“In the past, every piece of content was presented to the masses, with success measured by how widely a finished product was distributed around the world,” Kim said. “But now, I believe content consumption will take place within communities built around a favorite IP [intellectual property], such as a character or an artist, where members are connected through shared interests.”

Kim’s description of such communities echoes the idea of the metaverse, which swept the globe from 2021 to 2023. The buzzword has largely lost its appeal since the post-pandemic bubble burst, but Kim said the core vision behind it remains relevant to where K-pop communities are heading in an era of community-driven, fragmented consumption.

Kim attributes the metaverse’s collapse to technology running ahead of actual user demand. New technology, he argues, must give people both a new reason to care and an experience worth caring about.

“The ultimate destination in our vision is the metaverse, but before reaching that destination, there is a physical metaverse,” Kim said.

Whether it takes the form of an immersive space or a VR concert, that physical metaverse can serve as a portal to a community-driven metaverse that has yet to be fully realized, he explained.

One idea brewing at the tech lab is an XR-powered EDM party led by a virtual DJ that uses AI to read the room. Partygoers could dance and enjoy themselves as they would at any other EDM party, but with a virtual artist serving as the DJ.

“It is going to be a live concert driven by intense audio and visuals, only with a virtual character as a DJ,” he explained. “The mixing won’t be premade, as an AI algorithm will mix the music in real time in response to the audience’s reaction, captured potentially through wristbands handed out at the entrance that could measure pulse, temperature and mood, allowing interaction with the audience.”

That sense of liveness, Kim said, is what would distinguish the XR experience from what audiences have encountered before.

“If it is all on a monitor, it is no different from video content,” he said. “But when that real-time liveness is present, it comes with the feeling of actually existing within this virtual world.”

Underlying all that innovation is AI — arguably the most disruptive technology of this century and also a contentious subject among K-pop fans.

Studio Realive is one of the front-runners in applying the technology to entertainment, but Kim said AI’s ability to generate content faster and at a lower cost, which most fans focus on, is not where its real value lies.

“What AI can do is capture context in real time,” he said. “It can create a governance system that controls a universe or a character’s identity.”

Such a system, Kim explained, could make real-time interactive content possible while keeping it within the boundaries of an established universe and character identity.

For Kim, the challenge has been establishing Studio Realive’s identity at the intersection of future-oriented vision and entertainment, while developing new ways of thinking and working.

“The result cannot be new if the way we work or create content remains the same,” he said. “I believe the result will change if the way we exist and operate changes. So even if it takes time and is difficult, I want to create that kind of company — one that makes everyone wonder what kind of people work here.”

BY SHIN HA-NEE [[email protected]]