South Korea declares war on AI glasses: cheat on the exam, face court

South Korea's Ministry of Education said on Thursday it will seek criminal prosecution for anyone caught using AI smart glasses to cheat on the CSAT, the country's national college entrance exam. The ministry now treats it as a deliberate, premeditated attempt to disrupt a national exam, with possible charges of obstructing official duties by fraud and interference with business.

The second hit: the ministry wants to bar cheaters from retaking the exam for three years instead of the current one. That needs an amendment to the Higher Education Act, which caps the ban at one year today. Under the current rules, anyone who wears or uses the glasses during the exam loses that sitting and the next year's exam, and simply bringing them into the room voids the sitting.

This year's exam is on November 19, and each of the 1,312 test sites will get a dedicated specialist whose job is to tell smart glasses from ordinary ones. If they can't decide on the spot, rapid response teams from regional education offices and the ministry step in. For next year the ministry is looking at radio frequency detectors now being developed by a specialised institute.

The reason is simple. Smart glasses were added to the list of banned items in July, and students have already been caught cheating with them at university admission tests. There is a precedent for jail time too: in 2005 an organised scheme passing answers by phone ended in an eight month suspended sentence.

Glasses that look ordinary and feed you answers beat any cheat sheet. Now the convenience can come with a criminal record.