CJ ENM to develop AI software for content companies

CJ ENM’s Baek Hyun-jong, the head of business development and investment, speaks at a press event held at CJ ENM’s headquarters in western Seoul on Tuesday. [CJ ENM]

CJ ENM, a major entertainment conglomerate, plans to build an open-source software where content companies can freely share their AI tools that handle mundane tasks in the production and distribution process, starting from next year.

The company raised the need to deploy AI to respond to global demand to create and distribute content across a variety of genres. The landscape of the content industry is shifting, as content is distributed on different platforms and becomes more tailored to the viewers' personal tastes.

“Producers need to create more content to suit the different tastes of viewers in a timely manner, and that is where AI comes in,” said CJ ENM’s Baek Hyun-jong, the head of business development and investment at a press event held at the company headquarters in western Seoul on Tuesday.

“From the preproduction process such as finding the right topic and researching, to postproduction in special and visual effects and computer graphics, AI can help radically shorten the process. For instance, AI can help writers analyze massive amounts of scripts and propose adequate locations. It may also help manage the production budget and update them in real time. It can instantly find what the user wants through a couple of keywords in a sea of data, or create adequate sound effects or background soundtracks for a particular scene.”

Baek emphasized that implementing AI to content production and distribution can “revolutionize” the industry, which is why CJ ENM is planning to create a software where content companies can share and access AI tools that are being deployed in their businesses.

The company is considering forming partnerships with local AI startups to reach the goal, Baek said.

“The AI sector needs long-term investment and one company alone cannot shoulder that burden. So we are open to collaborating with other vertical AI startups to create a model that could encompass all of the AI tools.”

Baek did not give an exact figure on how much CJ ENM is investing in the AI project, saying that the company is “at the starting point, gathering and verifying data that [it has].”

Baek also called on the government to come up with a clearer set of guidelines and regulations related to AI.

“The data that we are verifying now is legally owned by CJ ENM; we are not training the AI software with data from exterior sources,” she said. “In order for AI tools to perform better, we need to feed them with more data, but currently there are no clear regulations about data copyrights and whether data that we do not own the copyright for, can be used to train AI. The cloud needs to be cleared in that area in order for us to propel development.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]