Prosecution Awards Special Performance Prize to Investigation Team for Analyzing One Million KakaoTalk Messages with AI

AI Reads Conversation Context to Uncover Key Evidence
Ministry of Justice Grants Special Performance Awards in Line with Government Policy

The prosecution investigation team, which used artificial intelligence (AI)-based analysis methods in its investigation to uncover key evidence, will be awarded for its achievements.

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According to the legal community on May 9, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has selected Prosecutor Son Sungmin of the Criminal Division 4 at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office and others as recipients of the special performance award.

Previously, Criminal Division 4 of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office indicted three people, including a developer surnamed Park, without detention last month on charges of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act (disclosure of trade secrets), breach of trust in the course of work, and violation of the Copyright Act. The accused allegedly stole the source code of an overseas shopping mall purchasing agency program developed by Company A and passed it on to a competitor.

The case files included KakaoTalk conversations exchanged by the suspects over two years, as well as a large volume of technical jargon that would be difficult for the average person to understand. The investigation team found the conventional method—manually entering and searching for specific keywords—was limited. Instead, they used AI to analyze the source code that Park and others delivered to the competitor. The team then trained the AI on more than one million KakaoTalk messages exchanged between the suspects, extracting conversations that raised suspicions of criminal activity. As a result, they secured multiple pieces of key conspiracy evidence that had not been uncovered during the police investigation.

By using AI to analyze the context of the suspects’ conversations, the team extracted details related to the criminal activity in this case. For example, even if phrases such as “let’s copy it” did not appear directly, the AI identified conversations suggesting source code duplication based on context, such as “It’s so similar to the competitor’s program, I’m wondering if I should at least change the colors,” and “Instead of making it remind people of the competitor’s program, let’s go with a different feel.” These were secured as additional evidence.

Meanwhile, the special performance award system was established this year following President Lee Jaemyung’s directive to “provide exceptional rewards to public officials who achieve outstanding results.” The Ministry of Justice plans to expand related awards in accordance with the principles of performance-based rewards.

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