On the afternoon of the 23rd, the conference room on the third floor of the second exhibition hall at KINTEX in Ilsan, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, was packed with people in black and white T-shirts. The T-shirts they wore were emblazoned with the words "AI CHAMPION HACKATHON." It was the stage for the public-sector "Black-and-White AI Champion Showdown."
The AI Champion Hackathon is a competition where central and local government officials and public institution employees develop models to improve public services using artificial intelligence (AI). Participants compete using the "Vibe Coding" method, which has AI write code from everyday natural language.
Twenty-four teams, 48 people, took part in the hackathon. They advanced to the finals that day after beating odds of 8.3 to 1. Participants are divided into White Coders and Black Coders depending on whether they have coding development experience. Those with development experience are classified as White Coders (technical type), and those without as Black Coders (planning type). It resembles how the Netflix series "Culinary Class Wars" labeled well-known chefs with recognition as "White Spoon" and emerging chefs as "Black Spoon."
Among the finalists that day, 48% were non-IT majors. One participant who majored in earth science education said, "I want to show that even non-majors can build the skills to do AI development," adding, "Now that I'm in the finals, the goal is to win."
Most teams were formed within the same organization, but there were also cases where people from different organizations joined forces. Shin Hwan-cheol, Head of Team of the big data team at Hwaseong Special City, teamed up with Ahn Jin-hee, a Deputy Director at the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission. Shin said, "Deputy Director Ahn and I are from different organizations, but we have often communicated through our regular work," adding, "We want to develop a system that helps public officials approach and learn AI easily, without thinking it's difficult."
Jeong Yeon-ho, a captain at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, formed a team with Jang Seong-ju, an assistant manager at the National Youth Space Center, who is also 31. Captain Jeong said, "Since we work at different organizations, we prepared for the hackathon through video conferences."
The oldest participant in this hackathon was 52. Two employees of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) data informatization office, both the same age, teamed up. Their combined team age was 104, the only one to top 100. They said, "We wanted to show that AI as a tool can be used for work regardless of age."
The Gyeongnam Provincial Office team drew attention for having the largest age gap among team members. The age difference between team leader Jeong Byeong-ho (49), a Deputy Director, and team member Tak Seo-yun (27), an Assistant Deputy Director, was 22 years. Tak said, "With the team leader, we developed five AI services in in-house competitions held by South Gyeongsang Province in 2021 and 2022." Their "business trip proof" solution and "When to go" (cafeteria queue status) solution are said to be in use by South Gyeongsang Province public officials for work and daily life.
Participants were split into everyday safety and welfare benefits to carry out their missions that day. The mission time was just four hours. In the welfare benefits part, the task was presented as "develop a public service that lets people easily access scattered welfare and benefits across ministries." In the everyday safety part, the mission was "develop a public service that allows people to easily recognize and prepare for risks in daily life."
After fierce competition, four teams advanced to the final round in the welfare benefits part: Dreamy (Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL)), Bodeum (Gunsan Public Health Center), Adeulnetttaldul (Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)), and Eo-deurim (Hwaseong City and the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission).
In the everyday safety part, four teams were selected: Dongdongz (Korea Land and Geospatial InformatiX Corporation (LX)), Momo (Ministry of Health and Welfare), Jigeum Eunggeup (Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)), and Jjugumi (National Information Society Agency (NIA)).
Except for two teams, Adeulnetttaldul and Dongdongz, all finalists were "Black Coders." A Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) official said, "More Black Coders than White Coders advanced to the final," adding, "While White Coders focused on technical demonstrations, Black Coders seemed to get better evaluations by focusing on ideas and the user interface from a public service perspective."
They will hold the final on the 24th. Among the teams that made the final, the grand prize will receive the Minister of the Interior and Safety award and 3 million won. The top excellence award for the runner-up will also receive the Minister of the Interior and Safety award and 2 million won. The excellence award and the encouragement award will receive the National Information Society Agency (NIA) president's award and 1 million won and 800,000 won, respectively. The top Black Coder will additionally receive the "special planning award" (NIA president's award + 1 million won).
A Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) official said, "The AI hackathon does not end with two days of competition," adding, "The goal is to actually adopt the ideas and outputs shown at the venue to drive AI transition."