SKT: "Discovering Hidden AI Talents Through Hackathon Coding Challenge"

[Financial News] SK Telecom announced on the 4th that it held the 'Claude Code Builder Hackathon' in collaboration with Anthropic and Coxwave.
Over 100 'AI experts,' both individuals and teams who passed the preliminary rounds, participated in the final stage. The finals were held under the theme of 'Enhancing Productivity in Everyday Work.' Participants were tasked with developing solutions within three hours using Anthropic's AI coding tool, Claude Code.
SK Telecom explained that this hackathon was designed as a practical development competition, going beyond simple idea proposals, where all participants could maximize productivity by implementing AI-based solutions using the latest AI coding agents.
Benjamin Mann, co-founder of Anthropic, participated directly as a panelist and judge.
The first prize went to the team 'Otorag,' which presented an AI system that detects voice phishing in real time during phone calls using LLM. Second place was awarded to 'Aristo,' which developed a local hybrid memory system for sharing context between AI agents, and third place went to 'Viber,' which created an AI prompt tuning platform that automatically generates and improves prompts using genetic algorithms.
SK Telecom awarded $10,000 in Claude Credit to the first-place team, and $6,000 and $3,000 in Claude Credit to the second and third place teams, respectively.
Additionally, SK Telecom held the 'Happy AI Coding Challenge,' a coding competition for youth, as a side event of the SK AI Summit.
First launched in 1999 as the 'Information Search Competition,' the Happy AI Coding Challenge marks its 26th anniversary this year. Organized by the Korea Differently Abled Federation and sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), United States Department of Education (ED), and Ministry of Health and Welfare, it is a leading IT event in Korea for youth with disabilities. This year, a total of 164 participants took part.
Held under the theme 'Time of Possibility: From Challenge to Leap,' the Happy AI Coding Challenge featured the 'Hope Challenge,' where students with visual, hearing, or physical disabilities tackled video editing tasks using AI under the slogan 'Journey of Challenge' on the first day. The 'Vision Challenge' allowed students with developmental disabilities to create webtoons using AI. In addition, all participants engaged in the 'Mission Challenge,' which involved card coding and tasks using the educational robot Albert, offering a variety of AI-based assignments.
Teams that excelled in each challenge received awards: the Minister of Science and ICT (MSIT) Award for the Hope Challenge, the United States Department of Education (ED) Award for the Vision Challenge, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare Award for the Mission Challenge. To encourage the youth who took on new challenges with AI, various other awards were presented, including the SK Telecom President's Award and the Korea Differently Abled Federation Chairman's Award.
Choi Gukhwa, former KBS announcer, hosted the event, which also featured a special lecture where three invited guests—Sin Hongyun, a disability awareness instructor; Jang Hye-young, a creator; and Kim Ji-woo, a YouTuber with brain lesions—shared their experiences and messages.
mkchang@fnnews.com Jang Min-kwon Reporter