Kakao Group said on April 6 it held the student artificial intelligence (AI) competition "AI TOP 100 (CAMPUS)" on April 4 at the Kakao AI Campus in Gyeonggi province. Kakao Impact and Brian Impact hosted the event, and the Ministry of Science and ICT and Kakao sponsored it.

The event was planned as a spinoff of "AI TOP 100" held for all age groups in November last year. The online preliminary round on March 14 drew about 3,000 students nationwide.

Participants majored in IT, business administration, social studies and the arts and physical education. Students from general high schools, special-purpose high schools, vocational high schools and Meister high schools also took part. The 100 finalists used AI tools to solve problems in the final round.

The grand prize, the science minister's award, went to Lee Jung-hoon (이정훈), a first-year student at Soongsil University. The gold prize, the Kakao chief executive's award, was awarded to Hwang Cha-bin (황차빈) of Konkuk University and Moon Jung-yoon (문정윤) of Korea Aerospace University.

Lee said, "Through the competition I was able to check my capabilities, and it will serve as an opportunity to learn AI."

The event was the first programme of the "Nationwide AI Competition" that opened on March 26. It was part of the "Nationwide AI Competition Promotion Plan" announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT on March 12.

Ryu Seok-young (류석영), chairman of Kakao Impact, said, "We plan to continue efforts to expand AI utilization capabilities across the entire population and foster talent."