"This Is Fake? Fascinating Yet Creepy"...South Korea Falls into the "Uncanny AI Valley"

Six Out of Ten Say, "I Didn't Realize It Was AI"
Fear and Confusion Spread as "Fake" Content Penetrates Daily Life
Calls Surge for "Mandatory Watermarks," Backed by 80%

Content created by artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over our daily lives. The speed of technological development has gone beyond amazement and is now bringing fear and confusion.

According to a survey released on the 3rd by the market research firm Embrain Trend Monitor, 85.1% of 1,200 men and women aged 13 to 69 nationwide responded that AI-generated content has increased noticeably in recent times. The actual usage rate has also risen. It reached 78.9%, a sharp increase of 17 percentage points from 61.8% in April last year.

Although AI has established itself as a tool for everyday life, increasingly sophisticated technology has fueled confusion. A total of 57.9% of respondents said they could not distinguish AI-generated content from human-made content, and 62.3% said they only realized later that it was created by AI. We are, in effect, facing an era in which the "fake" looks more real than the "real."

In the midst of this, the public appears to be losing its way. Many respondents found AI-generated content "fascinating" (35.8%), but there were also significant negative reactions such as "creepy" (26.9%) and "confusing" (26.1%). In particular, seven out of ten people (66.8%) said they could relate to the so-called "uncanny valley" phenomenon, in which something that imperfectly resembles a human evokes a strange sense of aversion.

This anxiety is naturally leading to strong calls for regulation. Eight out of ten respondents agreed that measures such as "mandatory identification marks such as watermarks" (80.3%) and "prior notification when distributing AI-generated content" (81.6%) are necessary.

Despite the flood of indiscriminate low-quality content, the market outlook is not bleak. This is because the wallets of future core consumers are open. Half (49.0%) of respondents in their 20s said they would create AI content even if they had to use paid tools. While the older generation tends to see AI primarily as something to be regulated, digital natives are treating it as "a tool worth paying for."