"Why Make Things Like This?" Foreign Media Highlights Bizarre Phenomenon Spreading in Korea

SCMP Highlights Cases of AI Manipulation in Korea

"South Korea, Among the Highest Consumers of AI Content Worldwide"

Blurred Lines Between Reality and Virtual Worlds... Lack of Social Safeguards Pointed Out

According to foreign media analysis, as generative artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly becomes mainstream in Korean society, the boundary between virtual and reality is becoming increasingly blurred.

A screenshot of a woman in a baseball broadcast video presumed to be AI-generated content. Screenshot from Instagram

On the 17th (local time), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) published an article titled "Lack of a Sense of Reality: How Korea Lost Touch With Reality in the Age of AI." The outlet introduced a series of AI-generated content cases that have recently made headlines in Korea and pointed out that social safeguards are lagging behind the speed of technological proliferation.

As a representative example, SCMP cited the so-called "baseball goddess" video that recently went viral on social media. This five-second video, showing a woman sitting in the stands at a professional baseball game, spread under titles such as "Average Korean Woman" and "Korean Baseball Goddess," surpassing 15 million views and drawing widespread attention.

However, the woman in question was not a real person but an AI-generated fake. Baseball fans uncovered this fact by noticing discrepancies such as a scoreboard featuring a matchup between a retired and an active player, and a cheer phrase that incorrectly read "Choegang-eun Doosan" instead of "Choegang Doosan" ("The Strongest is Doosan" instead of "Strongest Doosan").

The report also mentioned cases where AI-generated content went beyond entertainment and threatened public safety. In April 2024, during the escape incident of "Neukgu," a wolf at Daejeon O-World, images appeared on social media showing a wolf seemingly wandering near a school intersection. This photo even influenced evacuation notices and briefing materials from disaster response authorities; however, it was actually a composite image created by generative AI. The 40-something office worker who made the image was later arrested by police on charges of obstructing official duties.

AI-generated fake wolf photo. SNS screenshot

SCMP reported that Korea is one of the countries with the most active consumption of so-called "AI slop" in the world. "AI slop" refers to low-quality AI content mass-produced for clicks. Global video editing platform Kapwing analyzed that the cumulative views of eleven Korea-based AI slop YouTube channels have reached approximately 8.45 billion.

The article also touched upon the 2024 Telegram deepfake sex crime case, which caused a social stir. The mass distribution of illegal images combining the faces of minors and women revealed the serious risks of AI misuse.

Kim Myoungjoo, Director of the Korea AI Safety Institute, said in an interview with SCMP, "In Korea, where there is a high level of cultural interest in appearance and images, AI is serving as a distorted mirror, vicariously fulfilling suppressed desires and frustrations. Excessive immersion can encourage escapism and create a vicious cycle that lowers life satisfaction."

SCMP pointed out that while Korea's adoption rate of generative AI is among the highest in the world, there is still a lack of regulation and ethical discussion.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.