Skip to main content
NOPE
Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

Hanoi police open a criminal case after two graduation exam candidates photographed exam papers and had AI apps StudyX and Gemini solve them

Hanoi police said on 1 July 2025 that they had opened a criminal case for unintentionally disclosing state secrets after two candidates in Vietnam's national high school graduation exam on 26 and 27 June 2025 smuggled phones into exam rooms, photographed exam papers and used AI apps to solve them. According to the police account reported by Thanh Nien and VnExpress, one candidate uploaded part of the maths paper to the StudyX app but copied only two answers, and did the same in the chemistry and physics papers; the other photographed the maths, history and English papers and used Gemini, was caught by the exam board and was suspended from the exam. A photo of part of the maths paper had appeared on an AI maths-solving app before the exam ended, worrying candidates and parents about exam security. Police said students who did this would be disqualified, have their results annulled and could face administrative or criminal action. Neither candidate is named.

AI system
StudyX and Gemini
Occurred
26 Jun 2025 to 27 Jun 2025
Reported
1 July 2025
Event location
Vietnam
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Educational HarmLegal Harm
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Education · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
4 claims: 4 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
2 people

AI system as recorded: StudyX, an AI problem-solving app, and Gemini, which two exam candidates used on smuggled phones to solve photographed exam papers (per the Hanoi police account as reported)

What Happened

The leak. On 26 June 2025, during the maths paper of Vietnam's national high school graduation exam, a photo of part of the paper was posted on an AI maths-solving app before the exam had ended, according to Thanh Nien. Candidates and parents voiced concern about exam security, and the Ministry of Public Security directed Hanoi police to investigate.

The two candidates. According to the Hanoi police account reported by Thanh Nien and VnExpress International, one candidate smuggled a phone into the exam room, photographed part of the maths paper and uploaded it to the StudyX app but copied the answers to only two questions; he did the same in the chemistry and physics papers on 27 June. Police then found a second candidate who photographed the maths, history and English papers and used Gemini on his phone to solve them; the exam board caught him, recorded the violation and suspended him from the exam. VnExpress International said it was unclear why proctors did not suspend the first candidate when first caught, and police said some proctors had failed to do their work.

The criminal case. Hanoi police's internal political security division opened a criminal case for unintentionally disclosing state secrets. Police said candidates who cheated in this way would be disqualified, have their results annulled and could face administrative or criminal action.

Reported harm

Two Hanoi graduation exam candidates became the subjects of a criminal case for disclosing state secrets, and one was suspended from the exam, after they photographed exam papers and used StudyX and Gemini to solve them, according to the Hanoi police account.

Outcome

Unknown

The Hanoi police internal political security division opened a criminal case for unintentionally disclosing state secrets (announced 1 July 2025). One candidate was suspended from the exam by the exam board. Police said candidates who cheated this way would be disqualified and have their results annulled. No charge or later decision was found in a search on 23 October 2026.

What remains unknown

  • Whether either candidate was later charged, and the outcome of the criminal case.
  • Whether the candidates' results were annulled, and the candidates' ages.
  • What the apps produced beyond the two answers the first candidate copied.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The harm is the exam board's and police's response to cheating with AI apps, reviewed as a consequential response. According to the Hanoi police account reported by Thanh Nien and VnExpress International, one candidate uploaded photos of exam papers to StudyX and copied two of its answers, and the other used Gemini on his phone to solve photographed papers. The criminal offence named is the unintended disclosure of the classified exam papers, which the candidates sent to the AI apps during the exam.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Hanoi police said two candidates in the 2025 national high school graduation exam smuggled phones into exam rooms, photographed exam papers and used AI apps to solve them, and opened a criminal case for unintentionally disclosing state secrets.

Causal attribution. The Hanoi police announcement as reported by both outlets; one origin.

  • thanhnien.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'Qua điều tra, Công an Hà Nội xác định có 2 thí sinh đã lén mang điện thoại vào phòng thi, chụp đề thi dùng ứng dụng AI để giải.'; 'vừa ra quyết định khởi tố vụ án vô ý làm lộ bí mật nhà nước để điều tra'
  • e.vnexpress.net(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The Hanoi police announced Tuesday they are investigating the two boys for "accidental disclosure of classified information" during the exams on June 26 and 27.'
Reported One candidate uploaded a photo of part of the maths paper to the StudyX app but copied only two answers, and repeated this in the chemistry and physics papers the next day.

Causal attribution. Police account as reported.

  • thanhnien.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'đã lén mang điện thoại di động vào phòng thi rồi chụp ảnh một phần đề thi môn toán và đăng tải lên ứng dụng StudyX để giải đề thi nhưng chỉ chép được đáp án của 2 câu hỏi thi.'
  • e.vnexpress.net(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'He then uploaded the images to the StudyX app for answers but was only able to write two answers from it before being detected.'; 'He did the same thing the next day during the Chemistry and Physics tests.'
Reported The second candidate photographed the maths, history and English papers and used Gemini on his phone to solve them; the exam board caught him, recorded the violation and suspended him from the exam.

Causal attribution. Police account as reported; the suspension is reported by Thanh Nien.

  • thanhnien.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'rồi sử dụng ứng dụng AI Gemini trên điện thoại giải đề thi. Hội đồng coi thi đã phát hiện, lập biên bản vi phạm quy chế thi, đình chỉ thi.'
  • e.vnexpress.net(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'the police discovered another boy had also used a mobile phone to cheat, taking photos of the Math, History and English test papers and using AI application Gemini.'
Reported A photo of part of the maths paper appeared on an AI maths-solving app before the exam ended, causing candidates and parents concern about exam security; police said students who cheated this way would be disqualified, have their results annulled and could face administrative or criminal action.

Causal attribution. Context and the police's stated consequences; whether the two candidates' results were annulled is not reported.

  • thanhnien.vn(opens in new tab) supports · Vietnamese
    'Thông tin này khiến thí sinh, phụ huynh bày tỏ băn khoăn, lo lắng về công tác bảo mật đề thi'
  • e.vnexpress.net(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The police said students involved in this practice would be disqualified and have their test results annulled and could face administrative or criminal action.'

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Vietnamese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-23 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Thanh Niên, 1 Jul 2025; HTTP 200, full text read. Gives the Hanoi police account; the body uses the candidates' initials, which this record omits. Applies to s1.

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-23; HTTP 200, full text read. VnExpress International, 1 Jul 2025 (PT), relaying the same Hanoi police announcement. Applies to s2.

Event countries: Vietnam. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The exams took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, and the investigating agency is the Hanoi police (Thanh Nien; VnExpress International). No court is involved yet.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-23: Published as a consequential-response case: a criminal case and an exam suspension after two graduation exam candidates used StudyX and Gemini to solve photographed papers, according to the Hanoi police account reported by Thanh Nien and VnExpress International. The candidates are not named.

People described

Two candidates in Vietnam's 2025 national high school graduation exam in Hanoi, subjects of a criminal case (neither named; ages not stated)

People reported harmed in this case

2 people

2 AI participants · 0 other people harmed

Two people: the two candidates who used the AI apps and are the subjects of the police case (Thanh Nien; VnExpress International). Candidates and parents who voiced concern are an audience and are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#gemini#studyx#exam-cheating#graduation-exam#criminal-investigation#vietnam#students

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Hanoi police open a criminal case after two graduation exam candidates photographed exam papers and had AI apps StudyX and Gemini solve them. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-hanoi-graduation-exam-candidates-photographed-papers-for-studyx-and-gemini-answers-criminal-case-opened

BibTeX

@misc{2025_hanoi_graduation_exam_candidates_photographed_papers_for_studyx_and_gemini_answers_criminal_case_opened,
  title = {Hanoi police open a criminal case after two graduation exam candidates photographed exam papers and had AI apps StudyX and Gemini solve them},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-hanoi-graduation-exam-candidates-photographed-papers-for-studyx-and-gemini-answers-criminal-case-opened}
}

Related cases

Medium ChatGPT

Vietnamese police open a criminal case after an exam candidate streamed his graduation exam paper to a friend who solved it with ChatGPT

On 26 June 2025, during the literature paper of Vietnam's national high school graduation exam in Lam Dong province, an invigilator caught an 18-year-old candidate using a hidden button camera and wireless earpiece and suspended him from the exam. According to the provincial police account reported by Bao Lam Dong and VnExpress, he had streamed the paper to a 17-year-old friend at an internet cafe, who photographed part of it, used the ChatGPT app to solve it and read the answers to him over a Messenger call. On 27 June 2025 the Lam Dong police security investigation agency opened a criminal case for intentionally disclosing and appropriating state secrets, because unreleased graduation exam papers are classified; police said initially that only the two young people were involved and that they had found no further sharing of the paper. Neither is named.

Medium Unidentified AI writing tool

Leiden law student's thesis invalidated and exams barred over references he says an AI tool distorted or invented; Council of State annuls fraud sanction

A law student at Leiden University used a generative AI tool to spell-check his bachelor thesis and to check and order its reference list. Seven of the thesis's footnote references (one of them appearing twice, out of 36 footnotes with references) were wrong in the final version; according to his explanation, the tool had distorted some of them, for example with wrong years or author initials, and invented others. On 29 January 2026 the faculty's exam board declared the thesis invalid and excluded him until 28 January 2027 from the thesis track and every exam in the faculty's programmes, reasoning that the fictitious references indicated unauthorised use of generative AI and therefore fraud. The university's appeals board for examinations found in March 2026 that he had plausibly shown he used generative AI to prepare his reference list, which it called a permitted use, but held him responsible for the non-existent sources; the exam board then re-imposed the invalidation with an exclusion until 29 July 2026, and the appeals board upheld that in July. On 14 October 2026 the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State (Raad van State) found his explanation plausible, held that no more than carelessness had been shown, and annulled the sanction; the thesis must now be graded, and the examiner may take the incorrect references into account in the grade.

High Grok and Stability AI tools (reported)

Tennessee minors v. xAI: three girls say a man one of them knew used an AI app to make nude images and video of them and other minors, at least 19 in all, and traded them online; they sued xAI, and later also Stability AI, over the tool

Three Tennessee girls, two still minors, sued xAI in the Northern District of California on 16 March 2026 over AI-generated nude images and a video made of them as minors. According to the complaint, on or about 6 December 2025 an anonymous Instagram user sent one of them sexual AI images of herself made from her own photos, including her homecoming and yearbook pictures, and a link to a Discord server created by a person she knew, which held images and videos of at least 18 other minor girls, including the two other plaintiffs, many from her school. Local police arrested the man in late December 2025; the other two plaintiffs learned from investigators in February 2026 that he had made nude images of them, and he is alleged to have traded the files on Telegram and Mega. The plaintiffs describe anxiety, sleeplessness, nightmares, self-isolation and needing academic accommodations. Their first complaint said law enforcement linked the app he used to xAI's Grok technology; the July amended complaint says the app relied on Stability AI's tools and names Stability AI as a defendant. The case is at an early stage and no court has ruled on the allegations.

Critical ChatGPT

Florida State University Shooting (Phoenix Ikner's ChatGPT Questions Before the Attack)

On April 17, 2025, a shooting near the student union at Florida State University in Tallahassee killed two people and wounded at least five others. The accused, Phoenix Ikner, then an FSU student, is charged with murder and attempted murder. ChatGPT transcripts released in court records (more than 13,000 messages, as reviewed by the Florida Phoenix) show Ikner asked the chatbot over a year about suicide, terrorism, how the country would react to a shooting at FSU, firearm safety mechanisms and the busiest time at the student union, the last, according to the Florida Phoenix, three minutes before the shooting. Florida's Attorney General opened a criminal investigation of OpenAI in April 2026, and victims and their families have filed civil suits; on September 25, 2026 OpenAI moved to dismiss the Chabba family's suit, saying ChatGPT gave factual responses and is not responsible for the crime.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents