The news of BTS’s (방탄소년단) long-awaited comeback and world tour has been heavily reported all across the globe, especially in cities where their upcoming tour will take place. However, some reports have gotten more attention than others, but not for good reasons.
Recently, a Las Vegas-based Facebook page shared a post about BTS’s upcoming show in the city. The post featured all the usual information, including date and venue, along with a poster of the group. Unfortunately, the seven men in the poster, who were supposed to be BTS, didn’t resemble the K-pop sensations at all.
It’s believed that the Facebook page used generative AI to create the poster, thus resulting in the unrecognisable version of “BTS”. The original image was from the group’s December 2021 GQ Australia cover story. Understandably, this AI fail caught the attention of ARMYs online, who quickly turned to social media to express their disbelief.
Many quipped about the fake BTS, joking that the men in the poster were “BTS from Temu”, referring to the online marketplace. However, most of the comments were dumbfounded by the image, commenting bluntly, “Who the f*ck is that?”. Others also criticised the use of AI to generate a photo of BTS, when there are plenty of images of the group online.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time a social media page used a terrible AI-generated image of a K-pop group. A few months back, Super Junior (슈퍼주니어) fans slammed a Thai-based Instagram account for using an AI-generated image of the K-pop legends to promote their Bangkok concert. The resulting image depicted the “members” as random Asian men.
Interestingly, fans noticed another social media account using a different AI-generated image of BTS for their concert announcement post. Given the backlash, perhaps these pages would reconsider using AI for the posts. What are your thoughts on this?
