Home > Business > Tech

BTS's RM shares photo celebrating birthday at unofficial OpenAI launch event

Published: 15 Sep. 2025, 18:36 Updated: 17 Sep. 2025, 10:53

BTS's RM, center in the front row, poses for a photo with OpenAI executives at an unofficial event Sept. 11 marking the opening of the U.S. tech firm’s Korean branch. Participants also celebrated RM’s birthday, which falls Sept. 12. The photo was posted to RM’s Instagram Stories. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

BTS leader RM and K-pop producer Vince joined OpenAI executives in Seoul last week as the U.S. artificial intelligence company launched its Korean subsidiary, its fastest-growing market in Asia.

Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer, Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer, and Oliver Jay, head of internal strategy and operations, attended the gathering. RM, The Black Label producer Vince and popular Korean DJ and producer Peggy Gou also joined. Former NC Cultural Foundation head Yoon Song-yee made an appearance.

RM posted photos from the event to his Instagram Stories, though the post has since expired. RM and OpenAI have not revealed whether they will collaborate on a future project.

“RM came to celebrate the launch," an OpenAI Korea spokesperson said. "While there is strong interest in K-pop inside OpenAI, there was no discussion of concrete collaboration plans at this event.”

Before the networking session, Vince held a discussion with Jay during OpenAI’s official launch event. Vince said he often uses ChatGPT for inspiration while producing K-pop, describing it as an example of how AI is already used in K-pop production.

The unofficial networking event was reportedly hosted by JP Lee, CEO of venture capital firm SBVA, formerly SoftBank Ventures Asia.

Producer Vince of The Black Label, right, who worked on the original soundtrack for Netflix's “KPop Demon Hunters,” speaks with Oliver Jay, OpenAI’s chief business officer, during the launch event for OpenAI Korea on Sept. 11. [OPENAI]

Industry watchers say global AI companies are turning to K-pop to experiment with new business models for AI-driven video creation. The generative AI race, kicked off by the launch of ChatGPT, is shifting toward video services. OpenAI officially launched Sora — its text-to-video generation tool — in December of last year.

Korea is a particularly important market for OpenAI. It has the highest number of paid ChatGPT subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region and a strong ecosystem for AI infrastructure partnerships. There is also strong demand for AI adoption in globally competitive industries such as K-pop.

During a meeting with Korean startup founders last Friday, Lightcap said AI is becoming the foundation for innovation across industries.

He said OpenAI wanted to help more Korean startups use the firm’s tools to turn bold ideas into innovative products for the global market.

Analysts are watching whether OpenAI will explore new business models through collaborations with K-pop artists and companies.

“Soon, it will be possible to generate high-quality K-pop content with AI even without artists physically appearing,” one industry insider said. “This could expand the business ecosystem for K-pop and help OpenAI solidify its lead in video AI.”

The Perplexity AI logo is seen in this illustration from Jan. 4, 2024 [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Global AI companies are increasingly bringing entertainment figures into their events. U.S.-based Perplexity invited actor Lee Jung-jae to its cafe launch event earlier this month. Artist Company, where Lee is the largest shareholder, plans to launch a product search platform using Perplexity’s AI technology later this year.

Correction, Sept. 17: Section regarding artist Vince's use of AI to produce track "Soda Pop" corrected to state that the artist uses AI for inspiration.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KANG KWANG-WOO [[email protected]]