Less than two months ago the new South Korean girl group MAVE: released its first music video. It now has nearly 20 million views on YouTube. At first look, MAVE: looks like any other K-pop band. But it only exists virtually. Its four members - SIU, ZENA, TYRA and MARTY - live in the digital world, also called the metaverse. The group’s songs, dances, talks and even their hair are created by web designers and artificial intelligence. "When I first saw MAVE, it was a little confusing to tell whether they were humans or virtual characters," said Han Su-min, a 19-year-old in Seoul. "Because I use metaverse platforms with my friends often, I feel like I could become their fan."

不到两个月前，韩国新女子组合 MAVE: 发布了第一支音乐视频。它现在在 YouTube 上的观看次数接近 2000 万次。乍一看，MAVE：看起来和其他 K-pop 乐队没什么两样。但它只是虚拟地存在。它的四名成员 - SIU、ZENA、TYRA 和 MARTY - 生活在数字世界，也称为虚拟世界。乐队的歌曲、舞蹈、谈话甚至他们的发型都是由网页设计师和人工智能创造的。 “当我第一次看到 MAVE 时，有点难以分辨它们是人类还是虚拟角色，”首尔 19 岁的韩素敏说。 “因为我经常和我的朋友一起使用元宇宙平台，我觉得我可以成为他们的粉丝。”

MAVE:’s almost human-like characters provide an early look at how the metaverse is likely to look in the coming years. It also represents a push by the technology company Kakao Corporation to become a strong force in entertainment. Apart from creating MAVE:, Kakao made a $960 million offer recently to buy SM Entertainment. SM has a record company that is home to several popular K-pop groups. Kakao has said earlier that it has invested more than $9 million in Metaverse Entertainment, a group it formed with gaming group Netmarble, to create MAVE:.

MAVE: 几乎与人类相似的角色让我们可以提前了解虚拟宇宙在未来几年的可能面貌。这也代表了科技公司 Kakao Corporation 力图成为娱乐领域的一股强大力量。除了创建 MAVE:，Kakao 最近还出价 9.6 亿美元收购 SM Entertainment。 SM 有一家唱片公司，旗下有几个受欢迎的 K-pop 团体。 Kakao 早些时候曾表示，它已向其与游戏集团 Netmarble 组建的 Metaverse Entertainment 投资超过 900 万美元，以创建 MAVE：。

The idea of a virtual band is not new in South Korea. In 1998, the virtual singer Adam was created. Twenty years later, there was the K-pop girl group K/DA, based on characters from the video game League of Legends. Neither was popular. But South Korean technology has made progress since then in creating virtual characters. MAVE: is more natural-looking thanks to new tools and artificial intelligence. Developers are able to create facial expressions and small details in things like hair, viewers say.

虚拟乐队的想法在韩国并不新鲜。 1998年，虚拟歌手亚当诞生。 20 年后，出现了以视频游戏英雄联盟中的角色为原型的 K-pop 女子组合 K/DA。两者都不受欢迎。但从那时起，韩国技术在创建虚拟角色方面取得了进步。 MAVE：借助新工具和人工智能，看起来更自然。观众说，开发人员能够在头发等物体上创造面部表情和小细节。

With the aid of an AI voice creator, its members can speak four languages - Korean, English, French and Bahasa. But they cannot speak to answer any questions. They must use words prepared by humans. The group's voices in its first song "Pandora" and the dance in the music video were created by human performers. Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic aided the growth of such virtual characters. Many K-pop companies moved online during lockdowns to keep fans happy.

在人工智能语音创作者的帮助下，其成员可以说四种语言——韩语、英语、法语和印尼语。但他们不能说话回答任何问题。他们必须使用人类准备的文字。该乐队在第一首歌曲“Pandora”中的声音和音乐视频中的舞蹈都是由真人表演者创作的。专家表示，COVID-19 大流行有助于此类虚拟角色的成长。许多 K-pop 公司在封锁期间转移到线上，以使粉丝开心。

Lee Jong-im is a pop culture critic who teaches at Seoul National University. He said fans got used to online performances and have become more accepting of the idea that there can be both virtual and real K-pop singers. Virtual groups like MAVE: are making news for being new and different. But questions remain over whether they can be just as popular as regular bands with their large numbers of fans. Lee Gyu-tag is an associate professor of cultural studies at George Mason University Korea. He said that unless virtual groups have “unpredictability, they will become something close to video technology, not K-pop.”

Lee Jong-im 是一名流行文化评论家，在首尔国立大学任教。他说，粉丝们已经习惯了在线表演，并且越来越接受可以同时存在虚拟和真实的 K-pop 歌手的想法。像 MAVE 这样的虚拟团体正在制作新的和不同的新闻。但问题是，他们能否像拥有大量粉丝的普通乐队一样受欢迎。 Lee Gyu-tag 是韩国乔治梅森大学文化研究副教授。他说，除非虚拟团体具有“不可预测性，否则它们将成为接近视频技术的东西，而不是 K-pop”。

Yet, MAVE:'s creators and entertainment industry officials are hopeful. "With so many comments received from all over the world, I've realized that viewers do want something new and that they are rather open-minded," said Roh Shi-yong. He is the head producer of a weekly music show that showed MAVE:'s performance twice. "The metaverse era is coming."

然而，MAVE: 的创作者和娱乐业官员充满希望。 “收到来自世界各地的这么多评论，我意识到观众确实想要新的东西，而且他们的思想相当开放，”卢世勇说。他是每周一次的音乐节目的首席制作人，该节目两次展示 MAVE: 的表演。 “元宇宙时代即将到来。”