SK Group Uses AI to Recreate Founding Chairmen
SK Group released an AI-generated video recreating its founding chairmen to mark the conglomerate's 73rd anniversary. The five-minute clip resurrects the figures in lifelike form to deliver archival messages about the group's early rebuilding, vertical integration, and strategic bets such as entering mobile communications. The piece began screening on April 13 on a media wall at SK Seorin Building in Seoul and is being broadcast internally to employees. Production followed a suggestion from current chairman Choi Tae-won, who wanted the founding generation's entrepreneurial ethos and management lessons to reach today's workforce. The release demonstrates how large corporates deploy generative AI for internal storytelling, while also surfacing transparency and consent questions practitioners should track.
What happened
SK Group released an AI-generated video recreating its founding chairmen, Chey Jong-gun and Chey Jong-hyon, to commemorate its 73rd anniversary. The five-minute film is playing on a media wall at SK Seorin Building in Jongno, Seoul, and is distributed on internal channels. Production was initiated after current chairman Choi Tae-won suggested using AI to convey the founders' messages to employees.
Technical details
The company describes the piece as an AI recreation that stages the founders delivering quotes and management recollections about rebuilding Sunkyong Textile, the decision to produce nylon, the Dakpyo lining success, acquisition of Walkerhill Hotel, and the later move into mobile communications. Public reporting does not disclose the model, vendor, training data, or whether voice cloning used archival audio or actor voice synthesis, leaving opaque the exact generative stack and consent process.
Context and significance
Corporations increasingly use generative AI for brand storytelling, culture transfer, and internal training. SK Group's deployment is notable because it recreates deceased executives, which raises ethical, legal, and governance questions beyond production quality. Practitioners should treat this as a case study where technical capability meets corporate communications policy: authenticity expectations, rights clearance for likeness and voice, archival data provenance, and potential reputational risk when audiences cannot easily distinguish synthetic from archival footage.
Operational implications
For teams building or authorizing similar artifacts, consider these operational controls:
- •Governance: explicit approval workflows, legal clearance, and documented consent or estate permissions
- •Transparency: labels, metadata, and provenance tracking so viewers know the content is AI-generated
- •Technical safeguards: watermarks, rigorous source attribution, and archivable generation logs
What to watch
Monitor whether SK or regulators publish more detail on the production pipeline, consent from estates, or internal policy changes. Expect peers to test similar creative uses, and watch for corporate governance and communications guidance to converge on labeling and provenance standards.
Scoring Rationale
This is a solid example of generative AI used in enterprise communications rather than a technical advance. It matters to practitioners for governance, provenance, and legal implications, but it does not alter model capabilities or benchmarks.
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