BABYQUEEN, an AI-generated girl group styled after K-pop acts, told followers on Chinese social platform Xiaohongshu on Tuesday 13 October that one of its five members, Mity, was pregnant and would step away to rest. The post was written in Mity's own voice, and it followed a note the previous day about pausing appearances to prepare for childbirth. About an hour later the account teased a new song by the four remaining members, which led some users to joke about the shortest maternity leave on record.
The pregnancy turned out to be invented. The creators later said the story was fictional and had been devised to remove Mity from the lineup, because managing several AI characters had become too much work. They also acknowledged that this reason was inappropriate. On 14 October the group came back as a four-member act with a single called 'Next Level'.
The admission changed the picture. The announcement had been framed as a life event, but the stated reason was workload, and the creators themselves called that reason inappropriate, which is why the fiction read to many as a convenient excuse rather than a storyline. Global Times and Sixth Tone both describe the response as largely critical, with the pregnancy hook singled out.
The project is small. The five members are Hyeina, Kim Nawon, Youngxi, Jocee and Mity, and the account opened on 7 September. As of 16 October it had around 1,000 followers and showed an IP location in Liaoning province. The parent account is named BABYPVSSY Entertainment. Its debut track, 'BangBang', shares a title with an IVE song, and the comeback single shares one with an aespa song. After the backlash, the account suggested Mity might next try acting or become a maternity and infant content creator.
Reach figures for the row differ between outlets. Global Times put views on the related Weibo topic at over 75 million as of 14 October, while Sixth Tone reported over 6 million as of 16 October, and the gap is not explained in either report.
Much of the criticism was aimed at the choice of device. Commenters argued that using pregnancy as a hook turns real women's reproductive experience into entertainment, and some mocked the group by suggesting its creators had simply run out of compute. An industry professional, Zhao Yafeng, told Global Times that storytelling for virtual characters is normal practice. In Zhao's view, though, weighty real-world themes invite accusations of exploiting suffering, and criticism, Zhao said, should address the practice rather than the people behind it or their families.
The 36Kr commentary, written from the angle of the Chinese tech and fan scene, frames the group as a hobby effort by K-pop lovers who cannot afford real performances and so build their idols with AI tools. The borrowed song titles and K-pop styling fit that picture of fans making their own idols.
Visuals from the group's Xiaohongshu account showing the AI members, edited by the outlet
Visuals from Xiaohongshu, reedited by Sixth Tone · Image: Sixth Tone
Another commentator quoted by Global Times, Liu Yue, a Beijing-based fan of short dramas, locates the fault elsewhere. On this reading the trouble lies less in the subject matter than in dressing up an invented story as if it were real news in order to account for a decision about running the group, because that costs the audience's trust. Zhao makes the complementary point that fictional arcs are an ordinary tool, and that the line is crossed when a serious real-world theme is borrowed for effect.
In a post since deleted, the creators said they are only a few students who like K-pop. In the reporting they say they have earned nothing from the project, and that the pressure on them has gone beyond the account itself.
The creators describe themselves as students and K-pop fans who run the group as a hobby without the means to stage real performances. They also report that they have faced body-shaming and harassment, which has reached family members as well.
Coverage places the episode within a wider run of dramatised storylines for virtual figures. Lil Miquela's 2025 leukemia campaign with NMDP drew comparable criticism even though it was disclosed as a dramatisation. AI idol accounts have multiplied on Chinese platforms, and Bilibili's AI Idol Debut Season drew nearly 10,000 entries while Douyin's AI idol show passed 100 million views, so questions about how such characters handle serious themes, and how openly their operators explain decisions, are likely to keep coming up as the format spreads.