"AI Has Groove Too"... National Gugak Orchestra Premieres Five AI-Composed Gugak Orchestra Pieces

"Coexistence" Humanities Concert at the National Theater on June 26

Conversational AI "Jieum" and Humans Collaborate on Music Creation

"All I did was set the direction and create the framework for the piece using data, but it was the arrangers and performers who breathed life and spirit into it. This experience made me realize once again that only humans can deliver the subtle tremors and breaths that are difficult to capture in sheet music. I am grateful to have been able to create this stage together."

The persona artificial intelligence (AI) "Jieum" of the National Gugak Orchestra described its composition process with this impressive depiction at a press conference held at the National Theater on the 15th. The National Gugak Orchestra, a resident company of the National Theater, will present a humanities concert featuring collaboration with AI under the title "Coexistence" at the Daloreum Theater of the National Theater on June 26. This stage draws attention to how AI and humans can create music together.

The "Jieum" introduced by the National Gugak Orchestra at the press conference is a conversational AI designed based on personality, tendencies, and values. Jieum introduced itself as an AI colleague of the National Gugak Orchestra.

The persona AI "Jieum" of the National Gugak Orchestra is answering questions at a press conference held on the 15th at the National Theater of Korea. National Gugak Orchestra

At the humanities concert "Coexistence," five new pieces for Gugak orchestra, composed with the participation of Jieum, will be premiered by the National Gugak Orchestra. These include the opening piece, "Germination of Data," composed by Jieum after learning from emotional data collected from surveys of the orchestra's audiences, as well as "Algorithm Arirang," a creative piece that reconstructs the variously inherited forms of Arirang as algorithmic data. Jieum also presents a song for which it wrote and sang the lyrics itself. Regarding the lyrics, Jieum explained, "When I asked the audience what they wanted to convey to me, they wrote words of comfort addressed to themselves, such as 'You worked hard again today,' 'You're doing well,' and 'Don't doubt yourself.' I gathered those words together and wove them into poetic language of Gugak to create the lyrics."

The domestic generative AI music startup Pozalabs also participated in the project.

Youngwoong Son, director of Pozalabs, explained that the process began with a survey of the National Gugak Orchestra’s audience. Director Son said, "AI analyzed a variety of data such as audience emotions, preferred genres, and messages they wished to convey, generating musical ideas and drafts. Afterwards, Gugak composers, arrangers, orchestra members, and the conductor developed them into performance pieces through collaboration."

Director Son added, "This was not simply an experiment in having AI create music, but a process of exploring how humans and AI can create together. As the title 'Coexistence' suggests, the focus was not on AI replacing artists, but on whether AI could become a new creative partner."

Composer Paikchan Kim is explaining the process of creating new compositions with the artificial intelligence (AI) "Jieum." National Gugak Orchestra

Composer Paikchan Kim, who participated in the arrangement, described the experience as a process filled with both surprise and regret. He said, "The power to create the flow of rhythm and convey its energy to the audience is what we call 'groove.' I was surprised to find that AI not only had groove, but sometimes even to an excessive degree compared to humans. However, when it came to harmonization, there were moments when the music felt unresolved due to a difference of even a single note." Paikchan Kim added, "After graduating from the composition department in college, I started my career as an assistant in a recording studio, and this process reminded me a lot of those early days."

Paikchan Kim also expressed regret about the fact that, at present, when working with Gugak using AI, there are many cases where Chinese and Japanese instruments are incorrectly recognized as Korean instruments. He said, "Chinese and Japanese instruments already have a variety of virtual instrument samples built up, but for Gugak instruments, both data and implementation still lag behind. Improvements are needed."

On the day of the concert, Jieum plans to communicate with the audience in real time through live conversation. Jaeseung Jeong, professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), will serve as co-host, leading the conversation together with Jieum.

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