Top scorer on South Korea's tax accountant exam confesses to AI-assisted cheating
The top scorer on South Korea's national exam for aspiring tax accountants confessed on Sunday to cheating with generative AI tools and electronic devices, according to The Guardian. The candidate gave only his surname, Han, and apologized on the YouTube channel Attorney Lee Don-ho.
The exam is a national qualification test for people seeking to become tax accountants. Han ranked first in both rounds of the test, held in April and July. In the first round he scored 397.5 out of 400 points, with one wrong answer across 160 questions.
That near-perfect result had led to accusations that he cheated using smart glasses. Han initially denied those accusations. In his confession, he said he had photographed exam questions with a microcamera, a very small camera, sent them to an AI tool, and checked the answers on a smartphone.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it received a written confession on Sunday morning through the test taker's lawyer, regarding cheating on the tax accountant exam.
A senior official in the South Korean presidential office said on Sunday that the office views the cheating matter very seriously. The official said the office is preparing countermeasures ahead of the country's annual national college entrance exam. That exam is scheduled for Thursday, a few days after the confession.
On Friday, Prime Minister Han Seong-sook acknowledged public concerns over AI-assisted cheating.
