The 2025 GenAsia Challenge (GAC) International tournament took place online on December 13. After an intense hour of live fact-checking and rapid-response rounds, the Japanese team YAYO-SAN emerged as the champion, while two Taiwanese teams, “Do I Look Like Google?” and “sumimasen,” took second and third place.
This year, the competition was co-hosted by Taiwan FactCheck Center, Japan Fact-check Center, Japanese educational startup Classroom Adventure, Cofact Thailand, Mongolian Fact-Checking Center, and DataLEADS from India, bringing together top young fact-checkers from Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Mongolia, and India. The competition attracted over 800 registrations.
Centered on fact-checking and digital literacy, the contest challenged participants through timed quizzes and diverse verification scenarios, testing their ability to identify misinformation, verify sources, and collaborate as a team in an era of information overload and AI-generated content. Each country selected its top five teams through national competitions to advance to the international stage.
The competition included a variety of question formats, text, images, and videos. Challenges required participants to identify inaccuracies in articles, trace the original posting time of social media content, detect AI-manipulated image details, and recognize AI-generated videos. Participants had 2 to 5 minutes per task and were required to submit answers as a team’s first response. Balancing accuracy, speed, and team communication proved crucial to winning.
The event was conducted entirely via Zoom and an interactive platform, with real-time multilingual interpretation provided to ensure a fair and clear environment for all participants. Organizers also coordinated support from partner fact-checking organizations to address technical or rule-related issues, ensuring a smooth competition experience.
Beyond the competition, organizers conducted post-event debriefs, walking participants through each question’s correct answer and verification process, emphasizing that understanding the fact-checking process is more important than simply getting the right answer. By breaking down misinformation sources and demonstrating search techniques and tool applications, participants could translate their competition experience into practical skills for everyday life and future careers.
We hope that the GenAsia Challenge will connect youth across Asia, cultivating critical thinking, responsibility, and the ability to navigate misinformation and AI-generated content. In the future, they aim to expand the competition, allowing more young people to become guardians of information credibility in the digital age.