The world‘s first hearing-impaired idol group Big Ocean is heading to Geneva, Switzerland after receiving an official invitation from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

On the 5th, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN organization, announced on its official website that Big Ocean will be attending and performing at the ‘AI for Good Global Summit’, which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland on July 8-9 (local time) next year.

The agency stated, “Big Ocean uses SVC (Singing Voice Conversion), an AI voice technology, in the music production process. As social issues such as AI voices being misused for voice phishing and deepfakes are becoming more prominent, Big Ocean was evaluated as a positive use case for AI voices. It was seen as an example of overcoming difficulties caused by hearing limitations with artificial intelligence,” explaining the reason Big Ocean was invited.

The ‘AI for Good Global Summit’ is a representative AI event of the UN with the participation of around 40 UN sister organizations. Since its launch in 2017, it has established itself as a global hub that seeks practical solutions to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by utilizing AI technology. It also connects AI innovators with CEOs in the public and private sectors to help AI solutions spread around the world.

Big Ocean will release its first mini-album ‘Follow’ at noon on the 12th. With the title song ‘FLOW’, it presents a new genre of ‘Free-soul POP’ that proposes the value of ‘Be happy through music’ entirely ‘for me’.

Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com Reporter jhj@donga.com