Clark Kent’s entire secret identity runs on one assumption: nobody looks closely at the glasses. This month, two South Korean universities discovered that the same assumption quietly runs their entrance exams, except in reverse. Instead of taking the glasses off to become a superhero, these applicants kept the disguise on until the proctor walked away, then put the powers on.

Here is what happened, per the Korea Herald and Seoul Economic Daily. Applicants at the University of Seoul (a natural sciences essay exam on October 3) and Yonsei University (a math essay exam last week) wore ordinary glasses through the pre-exam inspection, then switched to smart glasses once the test began. Smart glasses, for the non-gadget crowd, look like regular frames with a tiny computer built in. The Herald describes devices that can photograph a question with a frame-mounted camera, run it through AI, and show the answer or a step-by-step solution on the lens. That’s a cheat sheet that reads the question to itself and writes the answer on the inside of your glasses.

Now for how they got caught, which is the best part. At the University of Seoul, a proctor noticed unusually thick frames and asked the admissions office to take a look. That’s right: the most advanced AI-detection system in the room was a human being thinking “those glasses look chunky.” The applicant reportedly admitted it, was disqualified, and was barred from the university’s admissions exams for three years. At Yonsei, a proctor spotted the switch mid-exam and confiscated the glasses, and the applicant’s results were invalidated after the applicant admitted trying to cheat.

Then there’s the rulebook, which turns out to have a glasses-shaped hole in it. A Yonsei official acknowledged that its applicant guidance never specifically listed smart glasses, though the school treats them as banned electronic devices. The Herald adds that Yonsei’s rules don’t spell out a penalty for this either, so it is weighing a warning, future exam restrictions, and legal action. Each Korean university sets its own cheating penalties, so one applicant lost three years of eligibility while the other is still waiting to hear. It’s less a rulebook than a choose-your-own-adventure, and so far every path leads to lenses.

Naturally, the government has entered the chat. South Korea’s Education Ministry is preparing proctor guidance on spotting smart glasses for the national college entrance exam, in booklet and video form plus a brochure, and is withholding the details so cheaters can’t adapt to them. “How to Spot Glasses” is now, officially, a state secret. The education minister said on October 7 that the ministry is pursuing ways to invalidate the exam results of anyone caught with smart glasses and bar them from the following year’s exam, and Seoul’s education superintendent said smart glasses are explicitly prohibited in exam rooms.

Clark Kent has run this exact gag for more than eighty years, and nobody has ever once asked him to prove the glasses are just glasses. Lois Lane spent decades not noticing. Exam proctors had one morning.

Sources: The Korea Herald — Universities Split Over How to Punish AI Glasses Cheating (https://koreaherald.com/article/10902427); Seoul Economic Daily — Students Caught Wearing AI Glasses in College Essay Exams (https://en.sedaily.com/society/2026/10/13/students-caught-wearing-ai-glasses-in-college-essay-exams)