The Ministry of Science and ICT drew a clear line by stating there was "no problem" regarding the controversy over whether "benchmaeking" occurred during the second-stage evaluation process for selecting the national AI through the Independent AI Foundation Model Project (hereinafter referred to as "Dokpamo").
On the 18th, at a press briefing announcing the results of the second-stage evaluation of the Independent AI Foundation Model Project, Second Vice Minister Ryu Je-myeong stated, "In response to an official inquiry made to Artificial Analysis (AAII), the benchmark evaluation institution, regarding benchmaeking, AAII has blocked various attempts by companies to perform well on tests in order to obtain high scores. As a result of AAII's review of this matter, we received a response stating that there is no significant issue concerning benchmaeking."
Benchmaeking refers to the act of optimizing and tuning models to match publicly disclosed evaluation methods or specific question types in order to achieve high scores on benchmarks. In other words, it means taking an open-book test by having prior knowledge of the exam questions.
The benchmaeking controversy first emerged in online developer communities. The trigger was reports that AfterQuery, a U.S.-based AI training specialist company, had reportedly proposed cooperation with companies participating in Dokpamo on matters such as data required for model training and post-training technologies at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2026 held in Seoul last month.
in TECH
