Hwaseong Special City concludes AI contest 'Hwaseong Wasung'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park Chan-hyuk] Following its groundbreaking hosting of the nation's first AI CF contest among local governments last year, Hwaseong Special City has successfully concluded the 2025 AI contest 'Hwaseong Wasung,' once again demonstrating its position as an AI pioneer city.

The city held an awards ceremony in the lobby of city hall on the 16th, awarding prize money and certificates to a total of 21 winners—7 from the video category and 14 from the image category—selected through fierce competition.

The grand prize in the video category was awarded to Kim Se-young's 'We Shine, Hwaseong.' The video sensually expresses Hwaseong Special City, a city where youth and tradition, sea and land coexist, through scenes of a young farmer singing against the backdrop of major tourist attractions including Yonggwun Mausoleum, Jebu Island, and the Dinosaur Egg Fossil Site.

The grand prize in the image category was awarded to Kim Dong-gyun's 'Hwaseong Special City Advances as the Center of Gyeonggi Marine Tourism.' The work symbolically captures the vision of Hwaseong Special City as it advances toward becoming a West Coast marine tourism city, centered on the sunset of the West Coast and cable cars.

Earlier, the city solicited video and image works newly created using AI technology from October 2 to November 16 under the theme 'My Hwaseong, Perfected by AI,' featuring major tourist attractions and landmarks of Hwaseong Special City.

As a result, a total of 616 creative and innovative works were submitted—330 in the video category (30-45 seconds) and 286 in the image category (single frame)—demonstrating nationwide interest in Hwaseong City's 'AI contest.'

The winning works were selected through four rigorous stages of evaluation: disqualification screening, expert review, public verification, and final judging, with winners selected in the grand prize, excellence award, and merit award categories for each section.

Additionally, the city drew attention this year by newly establishing the 'I Too Am Hwaseong Influencer Award.' A total of 14 works were honored based on the highest number of views in the video category and highest number of 'likes' in the image category among submissions posted on participants' SNS accounts, encouraging citizens to voluntarily participate in promoting the contest and the city.

Award winners received prize money totaling 60 million won, including 10 million won for the grand prize, reaffirming this ranks among the highest among contests hosted by local governments.

The contest holds particular significance in that participants utilized domestic and international AI platforms to generate videos and images while repeatedly engaging with △historical and cultural resources related to King Jeongjo including Yongju Temple and Yonggwun Mausoleum △Gungpyeong Port △Jebu Island △Botanic Garden Hwaseong and other major city brands and tourist attractions of the city.

This means that large quantities of Hwaseong Special City-related data are naturally being learned by AI models, potentially leading to the long-term effect of 'Hwaseong Special City' being expressed more clearly and precisely in generative AI services.

Furthermore, the contest marks an opportunity to expand city promotion beyond discovering promotional content into the artificial intelligence ecosystem, and is expected to serve as a long-term asset for strengthening Hwaseong Special City's urban brand image.

The city plans to actively utilize the fresh and highly applicable promotional content discovered through this contest and expects it to greatly contribute to enhancing the city's image ahead of the establishment of four general district offices in February next year.

At the awards ceremony, diverse celebration events including exhibitions and screenings of contest-winning works, a dance performance by 'One Shot Crew,' and a performance by children's choir 'Playstar Musical' added to the festivities.

Winning works can be viewed in the winning works gallery on the 2025 AI Contest official website (https://aihscity.com).

Vice Mayor Jo Seung-moon stated, "I sincerely thank all those who participated in the contest with passionate enthusiasm. Through the participants' creative AI content, we have reconfirmed that our city is an AI pioneer leading the future. Going forward, we will continue to apply AI technology to administration to further enrich the lives of citizens."