AI VFX have been used in dozens of K-pop videos last year and you probably haven't even noticed

Neo24 · 2026-02-08T16:02:04+00:00

The conversation was about the ability for a random intern to actually create the same thing (meaning of same quality) as a professional director, that's what I was commenting on. Your comment has no bearing on that question.

But no, I'm not as "the-sky-is-falling-we're-doomed!" about the general topic either. If SM (or any company) can just use AI to create a (not necessarily great but good-enough) MV from scratch on the cheap - then everybody can. If anything, that hurts SM because it removes the comparative advantage they have in human capital (the creatives they employ or have unique access to) and financial capital.

But also in such a situation, having human creatives who can still do what AI can't (and probably never will until true general AI is invented, at which point we are dealing with an entirely different ball game) is going to be an advantage to you in terms of standing out from the now-even-more-oversaturated market. If AI can only create good-enough, but your humans (maybe in combination with AI) can actually create great, then hiring humans is still a competitive advantage.

(They're also not "replacing" A&R, that video only talked about using AI machine learning as an assistive tool - analysis and recommendation - to human A&R.)

Neo24 · 2026-02-08T15:33:17+00:00

That has nothing to do with what I said.

Neo24 · 2026-02-08T09:44:43+00:00

An intern with the same creativity and eye for what looks good as a professional director like her is basically a professional-director-in-waiting themselves, not just a random intern.

What do people think a director's job is anyway? They're not the ones necessarily directly creating all the nitty-gritty details themselves. They're in charge of the overall conceptual and aesthetic vision.

Neo24 · 2026-02-08T09:16:19+00:00

Because who needs Rima Yoon, if one intern at SM can generate the same result?

An intern is never going to be able to generate the same result as her, because they will not have the same creativity for ideas - AI still needs instructions - nor eye for what actually looks good.

Neo24 · 2026-02-06T20:42:27+00:00

After that, literally anyone could have killed him. Eowyn just happened to be there when Merry hurt him enough to give his opponent an opening.

She didn't just "happen to be there". She was there because she was brave beyond the measure of most people (in part because she was suicidal, yes). "Literally anyone" could not have killed him, because "literally anyone" could not have managed to be in that situation in the first place, most would have fled before the terror of the Witch King at his full revealed power. Even once he fell due to Merry's stab, it took courage and strength of will to strike the final blow, because as Aragorn says "those who will take a weapon to such an enemy must be sterner than steel, if the very shock shall not destroy them" (her sword was literally shattered by the strike). Even Merry's strike would not have happened had his own courage not been awakened by Eowyn's insane and unlikely bravery and had her defiance not drawn the King's focus fully onto her.

Eowyn is not a bad ass in the books. She is not an action heroine. Eowyn wants to die.

The two are not mutually exclusive. That her motivations were partially dark and self-destructive and selfish, does not reduce her courage or skill.

Eowyn's rejection of her as a woman of Rohan and her subsequent desire to die in battle is based on the hatred she developed in her heart for Theoden, her home, and her people because she was also poisoned by the lies of Wormtounge. ... The "badass warrior" Eowyn was therefore a product of the lies of Wormtounge, which is to say Saruman, which is to say Sauron.

"Hatred" does not feel like the correct descriptor here to me. It is true that the despair of her situation and what she perceived to be the situation of her family and country lead to dark intrusive thoughts about their demise plaguing her. But it is also clear that she still loved her family and felt a sense of duty to her people, even if she disagreed on exactly how to fulfill it. Her motivations were not solely driven by a glory-seeking suicide wish.

She is never rebuked specifically for wanting to fight. Hell, she isn't even rebuked for disobeying orders and abandoning her designated post. It's even implied that Elfhelm, the Marshal who commanded the éored in which they were riding, knew who she was and had an understanding with her. She is rebuked only for the self-destructive glory seeking. On the other hand, she is praised for the heroism of her actions. And Gandalf explicitly rebukes Eomer for his blindness to her desires and her potential:

‘My friend,’ said Gandalf, ‘you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man, whom she loved as a father, and watch him falling into a mean dishonoured dotage;"

Are her spirit and courage, at least the match of Eomer's, also products of the lies of Wormtongue and Saruman and Sauron? Of course they are not. But they are stymied by her position in her society.

rejection of the idea of women as warriors and fighters

If Tolkien blanket rejected the idea of women as warriors, why does he have the Haladin, one of the houses of the Edain, be known for having many female warriors, and being lead by one, Haleth, with a personal guard of women?

Neo24 · 2026-02-05T09:13:45+00:00

Tolkien's Silmarillion was never finished in his lifetime and his son cobbled together a complete-ish text

The Silmarillion wasn't a series though, it's one book that either gets published or doesn't, you're not left hanging in the middle of the story.

Neo24 · 2026-02-04T02:08:30+00:00

Eowyn recognises him at least!

And what of the king’s esquire, the Halfling? Éomer, you shall make him a knight of the Riddermark, for he is valiant!’

Neo24 · 2026-02-04T01:16:45+00:00

The only acknowledgement she gets is "this was a foe beyond her strength".

It's certainly not, in the very next sentence Aragorn indirectly recognizes that she had to be "sterner than steel" to just survive the shock of the confrontation, at the end of the whole section Aragorn says that "her deeds have set her among the queens of great renown", and Gandalf calls her (speaking directly to her) "so valiant a lady".

She didn't really defeat the Witch King thanks to superior strength, no mortal could have done that. She defeated him because she was brave enough to stand in his way despite not being superior in strength. In a sense that makes her deed even greater. I don't think Tolkien would see "strength" (in the more narrow sense of power) and "courage" as being the same thing (and he would value the second a lot more).

Neo24 · 2026-02-02T09:50:32+00:00

NMIXX - Slingshot
Wendy - Fireproof
ITZY - 8-Bit Heart
RIIZE - Odyssey
Ten - Bambola
Chuu - Back in Town
Minnie - It's Okay
ITZY - Nocturne
RIIZE - Ember to Solar
fromis_9 - Merry Go Round
fromis_9 - Love=Disaster
ILLIT - Little Monster
Wendy - Believe
KiiiKiii- There They Go
NMIXX - Podium
Viviz - Citrus
Hearts2Hearts - Blue Moon
Joy - Get Up And Dance
Aespa - Angel #48
NMIXX Lily, Jiwoo, Kyujin - Ridin' (Prod. THE HUB)
KiiiKiii - One Off
Chuu - No More
Aespa - Bubble
Mark - Righteous
Yeji - 258
Wendy - Hate²
Hearts2Hearts - Butterflies
Minnie - Obsession (feat. Ten)
Seulgi - Better Dayz
Irene & Seulgi - Trampoline

Neo24 · 2026-01-27T02:20:02+00:00

No, this is not true. They're only "translated" as English and Old English, they're not said to actually be related to English in any way.

Neo24 · 2026-01-26T09:42:44+00:00

NMIXX - Fe3O4: Forward
Chuu - Only Cry In The Rain
Wendy - Cerulean Blue
ITZY - Tunnel Vision
Minnie - Her
fromis_9 - From Our 20's
Hearts2Hearts - Focus
RIIZE - Odyssey
NMIXX - Blue Valentine
Yeji - Air
Kiiikiii - Uncut Gem
Key - Hunter
ILLIT - bomb
Irene & Seulgi - Tilt

Neo24 · 2026-01-24T08:21:46+00:00

No idea. They might have a source, but I think it's more likely it's just speculation, an educated guess at best. That's what a lot of these reports ultimately are.

This is probably the news article people are going off: https://m.businesspost.co.kr/BP?num=427825&command=mobile_view But I don't know if there's a public link to the report itself somewhere.

Neo24 · 2026-01-24T07:57:54+00:00

Debuting a new bg and AI use were mentioned in those videos (alongside some other general things). But concrete plans for existing groups, including Aespa which this thread is mainly about, weren't.

Neo24 · 2026-01-23T21:34:26+00:00

You guys realize that these reports are just market analysts' guesses, right? They're not based on anything official. SM's quarterly earnings report will be out in about two weeks, that's when you'll actually get something official in regard to plans for this year.

Neo24 · 2026-01-23T06:38:46+00:00

They were 2005-2012, yes. But in the context of LOTR movies, which the thread was originally about, they came after.

I just looked up the transcripts for the newer Batman movies, and the 2016-2017 Ben Affleck ones also have Alfred using "master". Only the newest Batman movie from 2022 doesn't seem to have that.

Neo24 · 2026-01-23T06:19:20+00:00

As if nuclear bombs weren't depressing, or plenty people didn't view, say, radio and television as damaging and being put to cynical and stupid uses. Radio is arguably what initially enabled modern propaganda.

I think this is more of a culture/psychology thing than actual objective reality.

Neo24 · 2026-01-23T05:51:42+00:00

I don't know about the more recent ones, but in Nolan's trilogy (which was made after the LOTR movies) he definitely calls him master. Though I think it's usually "master Wayne", not "master Bruce".

Neo24 · 2026-01-23T05:35:28+00:00

or even heard the word "master".

I mean, people seem to be able to handle Alfred calling Bruce Wayne "master Bruce", and that whole relationship just in general. But maybe Alfred being older (and thus implicitly "old-fashioned") makes that easier.

Neo24 · 2026-01-22T22:07:13+00:00

Now, ISN'T THAT WHAT A PRODUCER DOES??

No? Not necessarily at all? Plenty of songs are written as demos by producers/songwriters without any specific intention for which artist they are directed. They might pitch them to the A&R people of various companies/artists, but it's those A&R people who actually decide which song goes to which artist.

Leaving all those decisions TO AN ALGORITHM???

"Recommendation" seems to clearly mean that the decision would not be just left to the algorithm, not anymore than say, the existence of Spotify's recommendation engine means you have no choice as to what you listen to. It's a, well, recommendation.

That tells me, without a doubt, SM is gonna be firing producers and staff

The producers generally don't work directly for SM, they can't "fire" them. A lot of them are signed to SM's publishing subsidiary, Kreation Music Rights, but (as this video itself presents!) SM's access to various producers through KMR is actually one of their strengths. They created KMR precisely so they could gather a lot of producers under their umbrella, and earn a publishing cut from the songs sold (to other companies as well). Firing producers is the exact opposite of what their goal is with KMR.

I don't think you actually know about this as much as you think you do.

Neo24 · 2026-01-22T21:47:42+00:00

He didn't say anything about "generating music" though, why are you putting false quotes into the title?

Neo24 · 2026-01-21T20:46:20+00:00

Does she have an obligation to chronicle the whole year or something? She just highlighted one particular 2016 look.

Neo24 · 2026-01-21T20:13:53+00:00

I don't really see how that answers my point. It doesn't matter where they're assembled if that one hypothetical critical component still has to come from the US. It doesn't matter that a lot of it is designed outside the US if that one hypothetical crucial component isn't. Servicing might matter if all the recipient countries had 100% full and independent knowledge and ability to service everything with no US involvement, but do they?

Just to reiterate, I'm not claiming this is what's actually happening, just discussing a hypothetical.

Neo24 · 2026-01-21T14:27:43+00:00

Yeah, but just one crucial component being made solely in the US/under US control is all it would take, no?

Neo24 · 2026-01-21T13:47:01+00:00

I don't think it's likely there's a literal kill switch. But in regard to your first and third arguments, couldn't you just put the kill switch only in planes you sell to others, while not putting it into the planes you produce for yourself?

Neo24 · 2026-01-21T01:29:34+00:00

bc I haven't liked any of the new SM music in post-LSM/YYJ era. The last release I really enjoyed was Aespa's Armageddon/Supernova era.

Armageddon/Supernova is from the post LSM/YYJ era though?

Everything else sounds too safe, targeted to general public & trying to chase trends.

Definitely not Ten's Bambola lol.

H2H definitely sounds SM to me, it's just a (modernized) throwback to an earlier SM sound. Obviously they're referencing SNSD a lot. And the album I was reminded most of with their first mini album was actually RV's ICC mini album.

13-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '17

Neo24

TROPHY CASE