Krafton and CJ Olive Young will jointly hold a hackathon on July 30 in Seoul designed to identify AI talent capable of solving real-world business problems. The event, called "Kopathon: AI Native Battleground," will use Krafton's in-house AI-native evaluation tool, Kopa-Probe, and offers winners a total of 10 million won in prize money plus a fast track through the document-screening stage for engineering roles at both companies.
Applications are open through July 17. The organizers welcome people with AI experience, job seekers preparing for developer roles, junior developers, and non-developers who can use AI tools effectively.
How Kopa-Probe evaluates AI-native talent
Participants will complete two tasks. The Krafton task involves solving problems by interacting with a virtual on-the-job manager. The CJ Olive Young task tackles distribution-site challenges that combine customers, products, and data. Kopa-Probe assesses not just the final output but the entire process: problem definition, AI usage, iterative improvement, and result verification.
Park Jae-min, head of Krafton's AI Frontier division, said, "Talent evaluation in the AI era must be able to see the entire process of defining and solving problems using AI and verifying results." He added, "This hackathon will be a stage for participants to prove their capabilities and an opportunity for companies to confirm a new standard for evaluating talent."
Kim Hwan, CTO of CJ Olive Young, said, "In challenge tasks similar to the actual work environment, you must be able to prove your capabilities using AI." He added, "As we accelerate expansion into a global omnichannel platform, we will make securing AI-native talent a key driving force and, together with our members, deliver the best AI transformation (AX) services to customers."
Networking and direct access to HR decision-makers
The event will include networking sessions, talks by current employees, and a panel discussion with human resources staff from both companies. This gives participants a direct line to the people who design and run the hiring processes.
Why this matters for HR professionals
For HR leaders, the hackathon signals a shift in how companies evaluate technical talent. Instead of relying on résumés and traditional interviews, Krafton and CJ Olive Young are using AI-native assessments that measure problem-solving in real time. This approach aligns with broader trends in AI for Human Resources, where automation and data-driven tools are reshaping recruitment and talent management.
HR managers looking to build similar evaluation frameworks can explore an AI Learning Path for HR Managers designed to build skills in AI recruitment and workforce analytics. The Kopathon model - integrating process-based AI evaluation with direct candidate observation - offers a concrete template for organizations that want to move beyond credential-based hiring.
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