SEVENTEEN’s Woozi Refutes BBC’s Misleading Report About AI Songwriting & Composing

On July 11th, a freelance journalist published an article titled “Will K-pop’s AI experiment pay off” on the BBC News official website.

The journalist reported that boy band SEVENTEEN, along with other top K-pop artists, have incorporated AI technology in their music videos and songwriting. The statement in question stated that an AI-generated scene was used in the music video and it is possible that some of the lyrics were also created by AI. This sparked controversy.

Despite misconceptions, Woozi revealed at the press conference for SEVENTEEN’s best album “17 IS RIGHT HERE”on April 29th that he has experimented with using AI for songwriting and composing. He believes in embracing new technology rather than resisting it and has even used AI in his producing practice to better understand its capabilities.

Woozi explained that in recent discussions, the focus has been on the benefits of AI and how to safeguard our core identity in a constantly evolving technological landscape. In fact, he revealed that he had conducted an experiment using AI in his composing process, but made no mention of using it in creating songs for SEVENTEEN.

“Following the release of the BBC article, fans were quick to voice their criticism towards the journalist for misrepresenting Woozi’s statements. As the backlash grew, Woozi personally addressed the issue on July 14th through a post on his official social media account, clarifying that all of SEVENTEEN’s music is created by the members themselves.”

Even though Woozi had spoken out, BBC decided not to remove their article. They chose to keep the article, which still included the mention of SEVENTEEN’s AI song experiment and the backlash from K-pop fans, but they did add a sentence acknowledging Woozi’s statement on Instagram that all of the group’s music is created by human composers. However, the media outlet did not offer any formal apology for any confusion caused or take steps to correct any misinformation by publishing updated articles.

Pledis Entertainment, the agency of SEVENTEEN, responded to Newsen on the 15th, stating that the reports of AI-generated lyrics in the group’s songs were false. They also promptly contacted the foreign media to request a correction of the inaccurate information. As a result, the sentence containing the baseless claim about SEVENTEEN’s album was removed by BBC.