SEOUL, August 20 (AJP) - A music video created by Kookmin University students, depicting a man who tries to break off his relationship with the robots that think for him, then orders another one, has won the top prize in its category at a South Korean competition for work made using artificial intelligence solutions.
The film, titled "Epos," was made by five undergraduates in Kookmin University's Department of AI Design working under the team name Holy. It beat 255 other entries in the music video category of the 2026 Korea AI Content Festival, which drew 1,066 submissions across four categories between February and July. Awards were presented Aug. 6 at the Construction Hall in Gangnam, southern Seoul. The team members are Kim Se-hyun, Lee Song-won, Yoon Hee-won, Seong Yeon-woo and Han Ji-woo.
The idea came out of their own habits. The students said that after working constantly with generative AI, a class of tools that produce images, video, text and sound on command, they had come to see a clear gap between work that uses AI well and work that leans on it entirely. That gap became the starting point for the film.
In "Epos," the protagonist relies on cloned robots that take over one role after another in his life, a figure the team drew for AI itself. He decides to cut them off. He places another order instead.
The team said it was not trying to reject AI. What worried them was the possibility that heavy dependence gradually dulls human thinking, judgment and creativity. They ended the film without resolving anything, they said, because whether AI turns out to be a threat or a larger opening depends on how people use it.
Seong Yeon-woo, who accepted the award for the team, said the technology was never the point.
"The more we work in an era of making things with AI, the more I think the value of a work is decided by what question you ask, what message you put in it and how you direct it," Seong said. The prize, Seong added, appeared to recognize "the process of thinking it through with the team, over and over, for the sake of the message and the planning and the direction."
Entries were judged by a panel of working drama directors, heads of AI production companies and university professors, who weighed creativity, story construction, use of AI technology, finish and potential for further use.
The festival was organized by Chorokbaem Media, a Seoul production company, to find creators capable of making content with AI and to surface strong examples of it. Submissions were taken in four categories covering advertising, music video, short-form drama and mid-form drama.
Kookmin University opened the Department of AI Design in 2022 as the ninth department in its College of Design, with the aim of training designers who can work with data and AI systems rather than simply operate them. The university, which marks 80 years since its founding this year, has grouped design and content alongside AI convergence among eight fields it is concentrating on under a long-term plan called KMU VISION 2035: EDGE.
The winning works will be released in stages through Chorokbaem Media's website and official YouTube channel.
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