The top scorer on this year's South Korean exam to become a licensed tax accountant admitted on Sunday, Nov. 15, that he had cheated with the help of AI, according to news reports. In a video posted on his lawyer's YouTube channel, the 34-year-old said he used a tiny camera to photograph the questions, sent them to an AI tool and checked its answers on a smartphone. He said he did this in both rounds of the exam, in April and July. He had earlier denied the claims, the reports say. He said he had used the same method on the first round of the country's certified public accountant exam, and that he had handed police in Seoul a written confession; police opened an investigation the same day, the reports add. They say his marks had drawn suspicion: in the exam's multiple-choice first round in April he answered 159 of 160 questions correctly, with about a minute for each, and he also came first in the essay-style second round.
Two days earlier, on Nov. 13, the Human Resources Development Service of Korea, the government agency that runs the exam, said it had found no concrete evidence of cheating so far, though grading experts were still reviewing his essay answers from the second round. The four proctors who watched him over the two rounds told the agency they saw nothing suspicious; two proctors watched his room in each round. The exam is held in classrooms at schools the agency rents, and there are no security cameras inside the rooms, so there is no video of what happened. Electronic devices such as smartphones and smartwatches were already banned from the exam, and proctors had been trained to look for smart glasses, which were what people at first suspected him of using.
The agency said the same day that it would add to the 529 security cameras it already has at its test sites. It also plans to bring in detectors for wireless signals once the Korea Communications Agency, which is developing them, finishes testing them in the field.
After the confession, the agency apologized for failing to prevent the cheating and said it would file a criminal complaint against him for obstructing its work, news reports say. The reports say the agency also plans to check its other national licensing exams for signs of cheating, and to work with the finance ministry and the National Tax Service to cancel his pass, and that the finance ministry is moving to suspend the certificate showing he passed.
The Office for Government Policy Coordination, which works under the prime minister, also spoke on Nov. 13. It said the government sees cheating with AI smart glasses and similar devices as a serious problem that harms the fair chance of test takers who worked hard, and that it will meet such cheating with zero tolerance. For the national college entrance exam on Nov. 19, the office said it will make sure a plan announced on Oct. 29 works as intended: every test site will have staff assigned to judge whether a test taker's glasses are smart glasses. Those staff are linked to command rooms at the education ministry and regional education offices so problems get a fast response. A student caught cheating with smart glasses or similar devices will have that exam voided and lose the right to sit it the following year, and the government said it would respond firmly, including by filing criminal complaints and asking for police investigations. The office said it would do its best to clear up the tax exam case and other suspected cases through thorough investigation, including by asking police to investigate. It said anyone found to have cheated would be held to account under the law, and that the government would review how its national exams are run and soon draw up government-wide measures.
It is not yet clear which AI tool he used or how he kept the camera and phone hidden from the proctors. The agency said he sat in the middle of the front rows in both rounds. In the video he declined to give details, saying he did not want others to copy the method, though he said he would tell investigators everything, according to news reports. Nor is it known whether anyone else has cheated the same way on this year's exams.