In a bold move, Korean company CJ ENM, producer of “Parasite,” has unveiled its ambitious artificial intelligence strategy, launching the animated series “Cat Biggie,” produced entirely by a small team using proprietary technology.
Introduction: A major bet on the future of content
Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM is betting heavily on artificial intelligence, revealing a comprehensive content strategy driven by the technology alongside the premiere of its first fully AI-generated animated series, “Cat Biggie.” At a prominent industry event in Seoul, the company, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, showcased its plans to revolutionize the content industry through its proprietary AI technology.
Shin Kyung-sub, chief strategy officer at CJ ENM, said: “We are applying artificial intelligence across the entire content value chain—including planning, production, distribution, and marketing—to expand AI content production across genres and formats.” He added: “This allows us to secure the next generation of intellectual property.”
Proprietary AI tools
The company, which produced the Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” showcased two main AI systems currently integrated into its production operations. The first system is “Cinematic AI,” designed for narrative content such as dramas and films. This system seamlessly integrates images, video, and audio into a single platform while automatically processing 3D characters and environments to achieve consistent visual output, addressing one of the primary challenges in AI-generated video content.
The second system, “AI Script,” functions as an AI agent for IP discovery. It analyzes consumer demand and market trends to identify promising projects and suggest appropriate genres and media formats. CJ ENM says its tool demonstrates a superior understanding of literary language, enabling a deeper analysis of content marketability alongside multilingual capabilities, setting it apart from traditional models offered by major tech companies.
“Cat Biggie”: The first fully AI-produced title
The short, non-verbal animated series “Cat Biggie,” which premiered at the event, marks CJ ENM’s first fully in-house AI production. The series follows a cat that unexpectedly becomes a father to a small chick. Consisting of 30 two-minute episodes, it was produced by a team of just six specialists over five months, covering content planning and character development.
Baek Hyun-jung, head of the AI business and production division who led the project, said: “The main challenge was controlling and expressing the unique dynamic movements of animation.” She added: “We used our tool, Cinematic AI, to convert characters into 3D data and train the production system accordingly. This allowed us to achieve a high level of completion in the final direction.” This timeline represents a major efficiency gain, as CJ ENM notes that 5-minute 3D animations typically require three to four months of production time. “Cat Biggie” is scheduled for a global release on YouTube in July.
Future vision: Toward a global AI studio
Building on this initial success, CJ ENM plans to expand into AI-backed film and drama production during the year, positioning itself as what Shin described as a “global AI studio” by expanding its team and creator development programs. This push toward AI comes as the entertainment industry wrestles with both the creative possibilities and regulatory challenges of artificial intelligence.
Sang-hyuk Im, a partner at SHIN & KIM LLC, participated in a policy discussion at the event, emphasizing the need for “clear industry guidelines, legal frameworks for copyright and data protection, and dedicated government departments to support this field.”
Conclusion: A creative powerhouse in a new era
CJ ENM’s entertainment division has been a major force in the global expansion of Korean culture, producing world-renowned content. With its bold embrace of AI technology, the company seeks not only to maintain its position but to redefine the boundaries of creativity and production in the entertainment industry. By integrating artificial intelligence into the core of its operations, CJ ENM aims to create new stories with unprecedented speed and efficiency, heralding a new era of Korean content reaching audiences worldwide.
