# COACH

Paying to Be Judged: Can AI Rescue China’s Fading KTV Scene?

China’s KTV chains are deploying AI scoring, coaching and synthetic music videos to revive a shrinking industry, with major investments from leading operators. The technology attracts customers with gamified rewards and cost-saving AI MVs, but it also provokes backlash over cold, intrusive judging, diminished emotional experience and ways for users to game the system.