Shift Up deepfake video — Sep 2026

Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae addressed a public relations controversy involving the use of generative artificial intelligence during a press conference at the Tokyo Game Show on September 18, 2026. The company, a South Korean game developer, faced significant backlash from both domestic and international fans after releasing a music video for its upcoming title, Bloodrain, which utilized generative AI for character rendering.

What happened

The controversy stemmed from Shift Up's decision to utilize AI-generated visuals within a music video intended for official marketing. According to CEO Kim Hyung-tae, the video was the result of internal research and development conducted by the company's in-house AI Labs. The team deemed the visual output of their experiments sufficiently high quality to warrant a public release, treating the content as an official promotional material for the Bloodrain project.

Following the negative reaction from the fan community, Kim issued a formal apology, acknowledging that the decision to present experimental AI content as official material was a mistake. He stated that the results of such technical experiments should have remained within the internal domain rather than being shared with the public. Kim clarified the company's future stance on the technology, noting that while Shift Up will refrain from releasing experimental AI content as official material moving forward, they do not intend to abandon the use of AI tools entirely. He emphasized that the company views the effective and transparent communication of how they employ such technology as a critical responsibility.