Does Persona Make LLMs K-pop Fans? A Pilot Study of LLM-Based Online Concert Audience Agents

June 05, 2026 ยท Grace Period ยท ๐Ÿ› the ICML 2026 Workshop on Culture x AI: Evaluating AI as a Cultural Technology

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Authors Kirak Kim, Hyojin Kim, Yejin Son, Sungyoung Kim, Kyung Myun Lee arXiv ID 2606.07837 Category cs.HC: Human-Computer Interaction Cross-listed cs.AI Citations 0 Venue the ICML 2026 Workshop on Culture x AI: Evaluating AI as a Cultural Technology
Abstract
A concert is a collective experience, but recorded performance videos are typically watched alone, stripping away the shared audience presence that makes concerts feel eventful. We investigate whether persona-based LLM audience agents can recreate aspects of this collective experience by generating real-time fan chat alongside a K-pop performance video. We present a multi-agent system in which ten LLM agents react through live-chat messages, comparing a persona-conditioned audience (each agent assigned a distinct fan identity, bias, and chat style) with a no-persona baseline. In a within-subjects pilot with K-pop fans (N=11), persona conditioning substantially improved model-level chat quality and perceived naturalness, but did not translate into differences in social connectedness, engagement, or affective response. Interviews suggest that online K-pop concert chat may operate as collective monologue rather than interpersonal dialogue, and that meaningful participation depends on shared identification with the specific artist and fandom. Persona conditioning can make LLM audiences appear more natural, but culturally meaningful collective experience may require deeper alignment between persona, crowd behavior, fandom identity, and user expectations.
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