160 questions, only one wrong: South Korea’s top tax exam score admits AI cheating | AI (artificial intelligence)

The grades earned by the top scorer on South Korea’s national exam for aspiring tax accountants this year seemed too good to be true. On Sunday, the skeptics were proven right when he admitted to using generative AI to cheat.

The scandal follows months of speculation after he received near-perfect scores on hundreds of questions in two exams taken in April and July. It also raised the stakes for organizers of South Korea’s annual college entrance exam on Thursday.

“I cheated by using electronic devices and generative AI. My passing the exam with the highest score was not the result of a fair effort,” said the candidate, identifying himself under the surname Han, apologizing on lawyer Lee Don-ho’s YouTube channel.

Han, who placed first in both rounds of the qualifying exam held in April and July, admitted through his lawyer that he used AI to obtain answers during the tests. He said he cheated by “taking photos of exam questions with a microcamera, sending them to an AI tool and checking the answers on a smartphone.”

His score of 397.5 out of 400 points in the first round, with just one wrong answer out of 160 questions, had sparked accusations that he cheated by using smart glasses, which he initially denied.

Speaking on camera, wearing a mask, Han said he had submitted a written confession to Seoul police.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police said, “We received a written confession this morning from the candidate’s lawyer regarding cheating on the tax accountant exam,” adding that the case had been handed over to investigators.

The scandal has shaken a country where standardized tests largely dictate social mobility and career trajectories. It comes just days before Thursday’s annual national college entrance exam, a high-pressure event that many South Korean students will have spent much of their lives preparing for.

“The presidential office takes this matter very seriously, and as the college entrance examination will be held next week, we have worked hard to prepare countermeasures,” a senior presidential office official told reporters on Sunday.

The official said reports of potential cheating on the CPA exam were concerning, adding that the presidential chief of staff for policy would call an emergency meeting later in the afternoon to address the issue.

Prime Minister Han Seong-sook on Friday acknowledged public concerns over AI-assisted cheating. The government would “prepare thoroughly in advance and closely supervise the process until the very end to ensure that the college entrance examination is conducted in a fair and stable manner,” a statement from his office said.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this article