The Future Entertainment World, SM Entertainment Signs MOU with KAIST for Metaverse Research

Kapanlagi.com - SM Entertainment and KAIST have signed a business agreement for metaverse research on June 23, 2021 at the KAIST headquarters in Daejeon, attended by executive producer Lee Soo Man, CEO of SM Entertainment Lee Sung-soo, and KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyeong.

Through this agreement, SM Entertainment and KAIST plan to: collaborate technically in the fields of content, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics. Carry out joint projects related to digital avatar production. Conduct joint academic research for culture technology (CT).

President Lee Kwang-hyeong said, "I hope that SM Entertainment's cultural imagination, which has captured the hearts of people worldwide, can meet with KAIST's incredible technology and become a creative product that can contribute to the entertainment market in the future as well as technology development."

1. Special Class by Lee Soo Man

Credit: SM Entertainment

After the signing, executive producer Lee Soo Man also drew attention by giving a special class for KAIST students and members with the theme 'The Future Entertainment World where KAIST and SM Will Be Together'.

In the class, executive producer Lee Soo Man spoke about his experience as a first mover in the Korean entertainment industry, "Since the establishment of SM Entertainment under the motto 'Culture first, Economy next', I went to the outside world to emphasize the importance of cultural impact on the economy," followed by, "We focus on creating a global movement, a sustainable movement to gather Korean national wealth, rather than just exporting hallyu through album and drama sales."

In addition, executive producer Lee Soo Man also emphasized that culture technology (CT) is the foundation of competence that makes K-pop a global culture and develops hallyu by saying, "I think CT should not end in one generation, but should create a written manual, spread it, and pass it on to future generations. So, I have created my own technology to create content based on my knowledge and experience, namely CT, and create a systematic production system," then continued with, "CT continues to develop along with technological advancements. It is important for me and SM to pay attention to new technology and continue to strive to integrate culture and technology to bring new content experiences," he said, introducing hologram content and Beyond LIVE.

2. The Future Entertainment World

Regarding the entertainment world in the future, he said, "I think it will be a world of celebrities and robots. The beginning of robots is avatars and we think avatars are important. The world of celebrities and avatars in the future has already started with aespa in 2020." Then, "SM CULTURE UNIVERSE". The future entertainment world connected to culture is the worldview of the future entertainment world that I and SM dream of and create. One big story, SMCU, will be created as a new mixed video content genre, 'CAWMAN', which is a combination of C (cartoon), A (animation), W (webtoon), M (motion graphic), A (avatar), N (Novel) to produce a truly new future content experience.

In addition, "As a producer, my topic is always the future, future content. Culture and science naturally have to merge to coexist for the future and human life. The combination of culture with bio, nano, AI, and other technologies will advance the future of entertainment beyond human imagination. Culture technology will evolve into a blend of culture and technology, or CT, which encompasses science," continued with, "I believe that future producers are cultural scientists and we need more cultural scientists to create the future entertainment world. I hope that many 21st-century pioneers of 'cultural scientists' will emerge from SM and KAIST."

(kpl/ssm)