[Update] Mystic Story CEO defends AI art before backtracking amid AI plagiarism allegations that their concept for Billlie took its art style from ‘Niccolo’

Mystic Story is in the midst of shooting themselves, and unfortunately Billlie, in the foot.

The company recently released a teaser with an expectedly convoluted title of Cartography Of The Unconscious, which was for their upcoming album with an also expectedly convoluted title, The Collective Soul And Unconscious: Chapter Two, and it was amusingly for a B-side called “$ecret No More“.

But soon after it was released, fans criticized the teaser for use of generative AI, one that appeared to plagiarize the art style of the French short film Niccolo. Those accusations peaked when co-director David Florian directly denounced the teaser, “So gross. This band used our film ‘Niccolo’ to create an AI slop music video.“

The creators then got together and released a more official response.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Niccolo (@niccolo.gobelins)

Meanwhile, Mystic Story was digging their hole deeper, as CEO Jungsu Han posted what basically amounted to an impassioned rant defending the use of AI by artists.

To their credit, Billlie’s fans stayed on his ass and got another response from him where he disavowed future use of generative AI.

I will listen carefully to every word you share with us out of your love and care for Billlie.

Going forward, there will be no unnecessary use of AI in the work of Billlie or Mystic Story's artists. And for the work of the artists who collaborate on our artists' projects, my…

— Jungsu Peacedelic Han (韓peacedelic正洙) (@peacedelic_su) April 23, 2026

Uh, we’ll see, I guess. I would bet that “necessary use” part is load bearing for him. And I’m also guessing for obvious reasons he hasn’t addressed the plagiarism allegations themselves, or they’d have to delete their work to this point. So not that sorry, apparently. Fans have pointed out they’ve made similar promises in the past and … here we are.

It is funny that a guy who seems so thoughtful and passionate about art and artists doesn’t seem to really care that his generative AI work appears to have copied from another work or that continued use of it is inevitably going to lead to more problems in this vein going forward because … well, that’s just how generative AI works.

Update

Their official account has released a statement saying that after an internal review they’ve concluded there was no plagiarism, and that will not use generative AI that compromises “the quality or completeness” of their work, for whatever that’s worth.

안녕하세요, 미스틱스토리입니다. pic.twitter.com/sgZChLJWiq

— Billlieofficial (@Billlieofficial) April 25, 2026