Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer, Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer, and Oliver Jay, head of internal strategy and operations, attended the gathering. RM, The Black Label producer Vince and popular Korean DJ and producer Peggy Gou also joined. Former NC Cultural Foundation head Yoon Song-yee made an appearance.
RM posted photos from the event to his Instagram Stories, though the post has since expired. RM and OpenAI have not revealed whether they will collaborate on a future project.
“RM came to celebrate the launch,” an OpenAI Korea spokesperson said. “While there is strong interest in K-pop inside OpenAI, there was no discussion of concrete collaboration plans at this event.”
Before the networking session, Vince held a discussion with Jay during OpenAI’s official launch event. Vince said he used ChatGPT while producing the “Soda Pop” track for the “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack, describing it as an example of how AI is already used in K-pop production.
The unofficial networking event was reportedly hosted by JP Lee, CEO of venture capital firm SBVA, formerly SoftBank Ventures Asia.
Korea is a particularly important market for OpenAI. It has the highest number of paid ChatGPT subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region and a strong ecosystem for AI infrastructure partnerships. There is also strong demand for AI adoption in globally competitive industries such as K-pop.
During a meeting with Korean startup founders last Friday, Lightcap said AI is becoming the foundation for innovation across industries.
He said OpenAI wanted to help more Korean startups use the firm’s tools to turn bold ideas into innovative products for the global market.
Analysts are watching whether OpenAI will explore new business models through collaborations with K-pop artists and companies.
“Soon, it will be possible to generate high-quality K-pop content with AI even without artists physically appearing,” one industry insider said. “This could expand the business ecosystem for K-pop and help OpenAI solidify its lead in video AI.”
