Creators of AI K-Pop Group BABYQUEEN Admit Faking Member's Pregnancy To Cut Workload

The creators of BABYQUEEN, a Chinese girl group built with artificial intelligence (AI), admitted this month they faked member Mity's pregnancy to write her out and ease the load of running five virtual personas, drawing widespread criticism online.

Rather than simply retiring a character, the team reached for pregnancy and maternity leave, then conceded the explanation was inappropriate. The episode also opened a window into the economics of an AI idol industry now competing with real musicians and influencers for attention.

A Pregnancy Written Into the Script

BABYQUEEN formed in September in Liaoning province in northeastern China, launching five AI-generated members styled after South Korean acts, including Mity, Hyeina, Kim Nawon, Youngxi, and Jocee.

On 13 October, a statement posted in Mity's name said she was pregnant and would step back to rest and prepare for the birth, asking fans to respect her privacy. The post drew more than 78 million views on Weibo, igniting debate over how a computer-generated character could be pregnant at all. The account had only around 1,100 followers at the time, according to the South China Morning Post.

A Teaser an Hour Later

The illusion cracked immediately. About an hour after Mity's farewell letter appeared, BABYQUEEN's account promoted a comeback single featuring the four remaining members, prompting jokes about the shortest maternity leave on record.

Some users speculated the team had run out of the AI tokens needed to keep generating fresh content for every persona, a limit that would make trimming the roster a money-saving move.

The Economics of AI Idols

The creators later explained that running several AI characters had become too demanding, so they decided to lighten the load by removing one. They described themselves as a few female students who love K-pop, said they built the group as a hobby, and insisted they had never profited from it. Fewer personas mean fewer images, songs, and posts to generate, and lower running costs.

Sixth Tone reported that the explanation appeared in a since-deleted post. The backdrop is an industry moving fast, with Chinese platforms Bilibili and Douyin running AI idol contests that have pulled in thousands of entries and hundreds of millions of views this year.

For US audiences watching AI acts spread into music and advertising, the stunt shows how thin the line between a viral persona and a disposable product can be.

Backlash Over a Synthetic Woman

Anger focused on what critics called the commodification of pregnancy. Users accused the makers of turning a woman's reproductive experience into content while showing little respect for women. Liu Yue, a Beijing-based fan, told the Global Times that the problem was using a fictional personal-life storyline to explain a real operational decision, raising questions about trust when fiction is presented as real news.

The creators said they had faced body-shaming and personal abuse once the story spread, with even family members harassed. They stressed that the people behind the account were young women, not the men some had assumed, and suggested Mity could return later.

A hobby project meant to escape the limits placed on real performers had instead imported the oldest one of all.