Entertainment – with a stretch?

Before we get into this rather fascinating new world of entertainment, we need to ask ourselves: what is entertainment?

I found something on BBC here

Of course we all like to get ‘entertained’, but we can either be passive (being entertained like going to a movie) or we can be a part of the entertainment (a video game like World of Tanks).

So, 2,000 years ago people went to see the gladiators fighting it out. That got the adrenalin going – and so does World of Tanks. The difference is the same.

Let us leave the violent ones alone and look at music.

True I can use Youtube to look and listen to my favourite music. But that is passive. I can TikTok or Instagram, but that is still passive.

The new thing is that I can choose when I want to be entertained and how. It is not limited to me going to buy a ticket to a concert. After all, I have my cell and that is where I get the entertainment. And the good thing is: it is for free!

The problem is (I read it somewhere) that Japanese youth are spending a massive amount of time in their room on the cell. Being entertained 24/7. This is a growing worldwide trend.

It is also a bit expensive to do music videos with the bands. They all need to be together, rehearsals, studio time, sound, recordings, and so on. This can take a lot of time and expensive staff.

Where do we go with this then? Is there a follow-on to this?

We need to go to Korea (of course!) where the latest trend is the girl bands. We have probably seen BlackPink, SNH48 (Japan, but..) and so on. But this is now one step further.

Thanks to AI, there are now several girl bands in Korea that are totally fictious. The characters are avatars and are created with AI.

The dance and sing and talk and move and look so real (The app for creating such avatars is mostly DeepFake).

The music is catchy, the avatars are so real, the graphics is so fantastic and it all blends into the experience of being entertained.

The point is: does it even matter if I can’t tell the difference between an AI band and a ‘human’ band? It is still entertainment.

The next step is to have a blended band. A band that consists of humans and ‘near-humans’. They all have names and likes and dislikes and personalities – and a following of fans.

I quote from the article: “While chart-topping girl band, Blackpink made history with the help of their virtual twins, winning the first-ever MTV award for Best Metaverse Performance in 2022.

More than 15 million people from around the world tuned in to popular online gaming platform PUBGM to watch the group’s avatars perform in real time”.

Can I have an audience of 15 million just like that? Yes!

Look at Aespa – four humans and four ‘near-humans’. It is a full band with each member doing different things.

Now comes the bigger thing: Can I interact with my character? Asking ae-Ningning (the near-human twin of Ningning) to change her hair style? Of course, and she can do that. And that change will only appear for you.

Now we see what AI can do – it can personalize the entire entertainment experience to suit exactly you.

But there is more: I can probably also choose to join the band. My cell has a camera, so the AI app can incorporate me into the experience. I am actively involved in the entertainment now.

But there is a lot more: why can’t I go shopping with them? Of course I can – it only takes the developers to incorporate that into the app.

But there is even more: the app offers the usual 10-15 second advertising spots. That pays for it all.

“The digital human and avatar market size is estimated to reach $527.58bn globally by 2030, according to projections by market consulting company Emergen Research.

At least four of K-pop’s biggest entertainment companies are investing heavily in virtual elements for their stars, and five of the top-earning K-pop groups of 2022 are getting in on the trend.

It gets back to the first question: what is entertainment? technology has evolved, but emotions are still the same. And the objective of entertainment is exactly that: entertain!

(PS: The hit song from eternity is ‘I am real’)