[AI Revolution](86) AI Voice Technology Created by a Seoul Tech Professor Who Loved Music

A Seoul National University Professor Majoring in Both Music and Science Founded a Company
Entering Games with 'Two New Weapons' Following Music, Drama, and Film
Real-Time Dubbing with Character Voices by Simply Inputting Text

Last month, the entertainment company HYBE also participated in 'G-STAR 2023' held in Busan. More precisely, it was HYBE's subsidiary, the AI (artificial intelligence) audio company 'Supertone.' It was highly unusual for an entertainment company to participate in G-STAR, a festival for gamers, which attracted significant attention from industry insiders. HYBE acquired Supertone in January to fuse the music industry with technology as a 'future growth engine.'

Lee Gyo-gu, CEO of Supertone and a current professor at Seoul National University [Photo by HYBE]

Founded in 2020, Supertone is a company showcasing audio technology across various fields based on world-class AI voice technology. Notably, last year, it recreated the young voice of the protagonist Choi Min-sik in the drama 'Casino,' and this year, it combined the voices of Nana and Lee Han-byul in the drama 'Mask Girl' to create a new voice unique to BJ Mask Girl. Having primarily operated in music, drama, and film, Supertone has now expanded its 'territory' into the gaming sector with two 'new weapons,' which it showcased at G-STAR.

AI Dubbing Realized by Inputting Text Only

Demonstration of Project Shift during G-STAR 2023
[Photo by HYBE]

Supertone’s two new weapons are 'Project Screenplay' and 'Project Shift.' Project Screenplay is an AI voice service based on TTS (Text-to-Speech) technology that converts text into speech. By simply inputting dialogue as text, it can generate character voices. The distinctive feature of Supertone’s technology is that it produces 'human-like speech' with emotional expression rather than a 'mechanical tone.' The service interface is simple and intuitive, making production difficulty very low.

Supertone expects this technology to expand the 'dubbing ecosystem' in the gaming field. Currently, game companies only dub major characters because full dubbing of all characters’ lines would incur prohibitively high costs for hiring voice actors. However, Supertone explains that by using voice actors for important parts and their technology for the rest, full dubbing becomes feasible. This technology is advantageous for entering overseas markets where dubbing is crucial. It supports three languages: Korean, English, and Japanese.

The other new weapon is 'Project Shift,' a technology that converts voices in real time within just one second. It is a service that can assist voice conversations between users inside games, similar to the popular voice chat service 'Discord.' Unlike Discord, users can freely set their voice style and enjoy real-time conversations with character voices. They can also adjust how much their own voice mixes with the character’s voice. This service is expected to be used not only inside games but also in offline spaces such as customer events. For example, an event MC could use a game character’s voice.

A Company Founded by a Music-Loving 'Gongdori'

Superton has also partnered with the audio-visual sound specialist company 'LiveTone' to strengthen its technological competitiveness.
Photo by HYBE

Supertone is a company founded by a music-loving 'Gongdori' (a Korean slang term for an engineer or tech enthusiast). CEO Lee Gyo-gu, a current professor at Seoul National University, was a vocalist in a band during his university days. He graduated from Seoul National University’s Department of Electrical Engineering, earned a master's degree in Music Technology from New York University, and obtained master's and doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Music & Acoustics from Stanford University, respectively. Although he loved music, Lee was also deeply interested in science and technology. Wondering if he could combine the two fields, he conducted research analyzing music, and Supertone was born from that research team.

Not only CEO Lee but also a significant number of Supertone employees can play at least one musical instrument. Supertone aims to create voice-based content across all creative domains. It is a path no one has taken before. This direction is possible because they embody both developer and musician identities. Supertone plans to refine the two new weapons showcased at G-STAR and commercialize them next year. CEO Lee stated, "By securing technology applicable to the gaming sector, we will establish a unique position as an AI audio company across the entire entertainment industry and lead a quantum leap in voice technology within the content industry.”