Now that generative artificial intelligence (hereafter “AI”) is accessible to the general public,  there is a lot of buzz centered on this new technology. SEVENTEEN’s music video of “MAESTRO” portrays a dystopian world in which everything and anything can be created with AI. The 13 members have become stars in an action film who ask us the question, “Who is the true maestro?” We met with the PLEDIS Entertainment A&R Team leader Yi Hyojin to talk about what it was like to use AI and motion capture technology to create the music video. 

What pushed you to produce the music video of “MAESTRO” using AI which recently became a hot topic?
Yi Hyojin: “MAESTRO” means a master conductor, but also a master who worked 10 years or more in a single field. Now that SEVENTEEN has 10 years under their belts, I wanted to portray their journey so far, the people who have been by their side, and the road  ahead of them, with this music video. I was brainstorming on how best to achieve this, and that was when I thought of AI technology which has been a hot topic since last year. Now that we have Open AI and Sora, we are living in a world where artwork is being created by AI. I began to wonder if all the know-hows that we have accumulated with SEVENTEEN for a long time would become obsolete, withAI deep learning technology replacing us. I wanted to pose the question of whether what we are creating is meaningful or not through the music video. 

What aspects did you pay most attention to when using AI and motion capture technology?
Yi Hyojin: It wasn’t easy expressing all of these deep and heavy topics within the short running time of the video. So we tried to describe it as much as possible by mentioning that a part of the video was created using AI in the opening of the “MAESTRO Official Teaser 1” which was released first. AI is already very advanced and convenient to use. I was surprised at the AI generated pictures, too. But there are clear drawbacks and limitations to AI technology, so I wanted to highlight the fact that it too, isn’t perfect. We used robot motion capture technology for the group performance at the end of the video. SEVENTEEN’s dancers went to the motion capture studio to articulate the robots’ movements. I remember carefully deliberating over how we were going to place the humans and the robots, especially since the scene was a depiction of how we could become one with many different beings and lead the world we live in. It was our first time using motion capture filming technology, and we had to learn everything from the beginning. (laughs)

Tell us more about the unique way the story is told in “MAESTRO” which features a new SEVENTEEN universe that we’ve never seen before. 
Yi Hyojin: Since “MAESTRO” addresses a difficult topic, we tried to get the message across to the viewers as best as we could. I talked it over multiple times with my team to find the best way to do that, and one of the team members came up with the idea that if each member was to complete our collective mission to become one single team while carrying out individual tasks, then we would be able to clearly express our message. That’s how we came up with the slogan “MISSION MAESTRO” which was our first step to producing the video. We wanted to include qualities that best suited each unit. For example, the hip hop team breaks down the door in the beginning, and invades this space, while the vocal team is depicted as characters who sit quietly and strategize. That leaves the performance team, whom we portrayed as elite agents sent in last to use their entire bodies to complete the task. We discussed at length with the Visual Creative Team so that we could incorporate this story into the members’ styles as well. The members are styled in a dystopian feel in the first verse, but as the plot progresses, they slowly turn into maestros. It will be fun to look out for the transition. (laughs)

What is the message behind the question, “Who is the real MAESTRO?”
Yi Hyojin: Countless creators are passionately working on their creations even as we speak. I wanted to let them know that all of their efforts aren’t for nothing. We included scenes that show us that it’s difficult to produce a perfect video only using AI deep learning, and show that there are things that only humans can do. I do want to point out that the “MAESTRO” music video isn’t a criticism of AI, nor does it mean that we need to become Luddites. But I do believe that we must think about how we can translate our identities as creators that we have forged and protected into a world of lightning-speed technological advancement. We wanted to share what we have been pondering over with the audience by posing the question, “Who is the real MAESTRO?” and we hope that we can use the answer as a driver for continuing to write the next chapter of SEVENTEEN’s story.