Hong Kong is anxious in the AI era

Text | Xiaguangshe, author | Ma Ji, editor | Liu Jingfeng

Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI

On August 27, the annual Miss Hong Kong selection finals came to an end at the Tseung Kwan O TV City in Hong Kong.

What is different from previous years is that this year, TVB specially synthesized the competition clips of Miss Hong Kong champions in the past 50 years to generate the first AI female emcee, Chen Wanyan, and used AI technology to allow the beauty to talk to the "older version of herself" many years later. Even the day's answering questions are automatically generated by AI.

Miss Hong Kong is one of the most representative symbols in the Hong Kong fashion industry. This time, classic fashion symbols are beginning to embrace technology.

Although the combination of Hong Kong sisters + AI seems to be a hot topic, it is obvious that the Hong Kong technology industry has paid unprecedented attention to artificial intelligence. This may be a microcosm of the current changes in Hong Kong: from the influx of 60,000 high-end talents into Hong Kong, to the vigorous introduction of AI companies, and even the full embrace of AI in universities - Hong Kong, with its classical temperament, is stepping out of the traditional financial, real estate and fashion capital. Tags to welcome the changes brought about by AI technology innovation.

This year, it can be clearly felt that everyone from the Hong Kong government to major universities are embracing AI with more enthusiasm. Someone in Hong Kong's AI industry told Xiaguang News that Hong Kong has multiple unique advantages and is full of potential in developing the AI industry. Driven by multiple measures to strengthen the development of innovation and technology, Hong Kong's AI industry ecosystem has continued to improve in recent years. However, compared with mainland cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Hong Kong still lags behind in terms of AI infrastructure and AI applications.

Can Hong Kong, which embraces AI technology innovation, survive in the new era of AI competition? It will be worth waiting and seeing.

Embrace AI, start by using ChatGPT

September 1st is the beginning of the school year. Major universities in Hong Kong are also ushering in a new change.

Recently, many universities, including the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Baptist University, have begun to open the use of ChatGPT services to faculty or students.

Previously, the debate on how to rationally use artificial intelligence tools has never stopped. The top university, the University of Hong Kong, as a representative, once banned the use of artificial intelligence content generation tools such as ChatGPT in class assignments, coursework, and assessment tasks.

However, the University of Hong Kong stated in a statement in August that starting from the new academic year in September, artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and the image generator Dall-E will be allowed to be included in university teaching, and students can also use such tools for free. But at the same time, each user will only be able to use 20 prompts to prevent student accounts from being abused by outsiders, and HKU will provide training, online courses and other resources to ensure these tools are used effectively.

Many other universities have also simultaneously established "terms of use", such as stipulating that it is only for work and research purposes, introducing plagiarism detection software, adding integrity clauses, etc. to prevent abuse.

Ian Holliday, Vice-President of the University of Hong Kong, said: The University of Hong Kong supports GenAI (generative artificial intelligence) and believes that artificial intelligence literacy is crucial to teaching. "Our goal is to make our teachers and students not only literate in artificial intelligence, but also leaders in developing GenAI's huge potential to benefit mankind."

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which earlier encouraged students to use generative AI tools, allocated HK$10 million in March this year to establish the "Education and Generative Artificial Intelligence Fund" to encourage faculty to use generative AI in their courses. technology, launched HKUST ChatGPT for use by university members, and established a working group to formulate and regularly review mechanisms for using generative AI.

In addition, Hong Kong also strives to promote STEAM subject education in primary and secondary schools and universities through public funding and other forms.

The so-called STEAM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics. The focus of STEAM education is to strengthen students' ability to integrate and apply knowledge and skills in various learning areas and across learning areas in science, technology and mathematics education, in order to align with Hong Kong's long-term goal of developing innovation and technology.

In recent years, under the goal of building an international innovation and technology center, Hong Kong has begun to focus on the development and application of the AI industry.

Before ChatGPT set off a new wave of craze, AI technology had been gradually applied in Hong Kong's financial, medical, tourism, retail, education and other industries.

Many banks have begun using chatbots many years ago, which can respond to customer inquiry messages 24 hours a day and improve communication efficiency. A survey conducted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on the application of artificial intelligence technology in the banking industry showed that nearly 90% of the retail banks surveyed have already or plan to use artificial intelligence to operate their business.

Some travel companies also provide travel consulting services through chatbots, including booking air tickets and hotels, and providing itinerary suggestions to travelers through data analysis.

In the medical field, attempts at AI model-assisted diagnosis and drug development have also begun, and have even been implemented in some Hong Kong hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.

At the recent SparkHub offline event held by Xiaguang Society in Hong Kong, Hans Lim, information technology partner of Roche Pharmaceuticals (Hong Kong), said that Roche Pharmaceuticals is currently using AI to improve its diagnosis and treatment level. For example, in the drug design stage, AI is used to simulate and predict interactions between molecules to speed up the drug screening process; in the clinical trial stage, AI is used to analyze clinical data to identify potential treatment risks; by analyzing geographical information and disease transmission patterns, Better plan the allocation of medical resources; provide better medical support and consulting services through medical digitalization, patient hotline and RocheGPT.

A research report recently released by Google shows that as various industries accelerate digitalization, more and more Hong Kong companies are applying AI and ML (machine learning), and 52% of the surveyed start-ups are planning to invest in the development of related technologies.

But overall, the application of AI technology in Hong Kong is still in its infancy.

"I think the application of AI in various industries in Hong Kong has just begun. Compared with the mainland, the application of new technologies such as AI seems to be relatively lagging behind." Kang Tongbo, founder and CEO of Silian Technology, mentioned that in the field of artificial intelligence In terms of face recognition and dynamic traffic planning supported by intelligence technology, "there have been many attempts in the mainland, but the application in this area in Hong Kong is still relatively limited."

In the "Global Artificial Intelligence Index" released by Tortoise in 2023, Hong Kong ranked among 62 countries and regions through a comprehensive assessment of multiple dimensions such as talent, infrastructure, operating environment, research and development, government strategy and business in the AI field. Number 32 shows that there is still a lot of room for development.

Hong Kong’s AI foundation: strong in academic innovation, but in urgent need of application talents

Finance, trade, real estate, etc. have always been considered the traditional pillar industries supporting Hong Kong's economic development. In recent years, as traditional industries have been unable to support the goal of promoting economic growth, the development of innovative technology industries has become the key to accelerating Hong Kong's transformation.

Hong Kong's innovation and technology development started late, but it has attracted much attention in recent years. **The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Lee Ka-chiu, declared when he first took office: "Without technological innovation, there is no future." **

Hong Kong has always been an ideal business location in the world due to its sound legal and financial systems, simple tax system and low tax rate. Its economic freedom and competitiveness rank among the best in the world. When it comes to developing science and technology innovation or AI industries, Hong Kong’s leading academic research capabilities are one of its advantages.

In a 2023 "Analysis Report on the Top 500 Global Artificial Intelligence Innovation Cities" released by AMiner, ** Hong Kong, China, ranked 11th in the world's artificial intelligence innovative cities with an innovation index of 86.94**. This innovation index is based on AMiner's analysis of all publications in top artificial intelligence journals and conferences from 2013 to 2022, and is calculated based on weights from four dimensions: paper index, scholar index, institution index and international cooperation index.

Compared with Hong Kong's ranking in Tortoise's "Global Artificial Intelligence Index", in this report released by AMiner, which focuses more on the academic field, Hong Kong ranks much higher.

In fact, Hong Kong’s AI research capabilities have long been well known in China. In 2014, Tang Xiaoou, an artificial intelligence expert and professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, founded SenseTime Technology, which has now become the largest artificial intelligence company in Asia. Tang Xiaoou’s students are flourishing in the field of artificial intelligence.

Since 2017, Hong Kong has invested more than HK$150 billion to promote the development of science and technology innovation in Hong Kong in eight major directions: increasing R&D resources, gathering scientific and technological talents, providing venture capital, and strengthening science education.

In December last year, the Hong Kong SAR government defined four major directions for the development of science and technology in the "Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint": improving the innovation and technology ecosystem and promoting Hong Kong's "new industrialization"; expanding the innovation and technology talent pool and enhancing development momentum; Promote the development of the digital economy and build a smart Hong Kong; actively integrate into the overall development of the country and serve as a bridge connecting the mainland and the world.

**Ecology, talent, application and leveraging the mainland, Hong Kong’s ideas for developing AI are becoming increasingly clear. **

In order to further strengthen basic research in cutting-edge technological fields such as artificial intelligence, the 2023-2024 fiscal budget released by the Hong Kong SAR government mentioned that HK$3 billion will be reserved to promote related construction and introduce talents and scientific research teams. Whether it is in terms of infrastructure construction and capital investment, or attracting enterprises and talents, it is tilted towards the science and technology innovation industry to "lead Hong Kong at full speed to realize the vision of an international innovation and technology center."

Specifically, in the 2022 policy address, a series of specific measures to attract scientific and technological enterprises and talents were clarified, including the establishment of an "Office for Introduction of Key Enterprises" dedicated to introducing high-tech enterprises from all over the world in industries such as life and health technology, artificial intelligence and data science. Key enterprises with great potential will be identified, and targeted enterprise settlement and personnel supporting arrangements will be formulated.

In terms of infrastructure facilities, in addition to the Hong Kong Cyberport and Hong Kong Science and Technology Park that have been established for technology companies to settle in at a low cost, and the government provides rent subsidies and financial subsidies, there are also plans to build a Hong Kong-Shenzhen Maker Park, together with the "introduction of key enterprise offices" ”, and a NT$5 billion “Strategic Innovation and Technology Fund” to attract outstanding companies and talents in industries such as life and health technology, artificial intelligence and data science to settle in Hong Kong.

Source: Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks website

In October last year, Huang Keqiang, CEO of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, said that in the past year, the number of AI technology companies in the park has doubled to more than 200**. These companies use AI technology to help different companies solve problems, including using AI to successfully develop new drugs, using AI voice technology to replace traditional manpower, and monitoring the sales of bank frontline personnel, which has greatly reduced corporate costs and improved efficiency. Huang Keqiang believes that AI will play an important role in the development of the digital economy and lay an important foundation for Hong Kong's future economic development.

The rapid influx of AI companies has put pressure on Hong Kong’s talent pool.

The 2022 "Global Technology Trends Survey" released by Equinix shows that compared with other regions in the Asia-Pacific, Hong Kong's talents with AI and machine learning skills (32%) are facing a more significant skills gap, and Hong Kong's IT decision-makers expect AI and machine learning skills to The talent shortage for machine learning will continue to grow (34%).

As Hong Kong announced a number of talent introduction plans at the end of last year and further relaxed the conditions for local companies to introduce talents, many innovation and technology talents also took this opportunity to come to Hong Kong. Among them is Kang Tongbo, the founder and CEO of Silian Technology, who came to Hong Kong from Beijing to develop.

Silian Technology is mainly engaged in the research and application of industrial Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies in the fields of energy and energy conservation. He said that since this year, many of his friends in the technology field, especially the artificial intelligence industry, have successfully applied for the Hong Kong Talent Introduction Program.

"I have just arrived in Hong Kong not long ago. My team and I will complete the research as soon as possible. If everything goes well, we will register an artificial intelligence technology application company in Hong Kong within the year." Kang Tongbo said, "In the future, we may have the opportunity to cooperate with old friends who come to Hong Kong. , to promote the development of artificial intelligence applications in Hong Kong."

With the help of the Greater Bay Area, can Hong Kong AI catch up with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou?

The development of artificial intelligence requires the close integration of algorithms, computing power, and data. To truly unleash its application potential in more fields, it needs to be based on a complete and rich artificial intelligence industry ecosystem.

Peter Chan, CEO and founder of digital business SaaS platform CINNOX, believes that "Hong Kong has advanced scientific and technological research facilities and professional talents, which provides the possibility to develop and apply advanced AI algorithms. From a data perspective, Hong Kong's data mart It is very rich. From financial transactions to social media, the availability of data provides rich resources for AI training and application." Peter Chan said that Hong Kong's AI applications have been practiced in many fields such as finance, medical care, and retail, and these Industry demand for AI is also growing.

For example, he said that what CINNOX is currently doing includes breaking down data silos, hoping that by deeply integrating AI and data analysis, it can help enterprises better understand and utilize data, achieve intelligent integration, and thus promote business growth and innovation.

However, from the perspective of building a complete industrial ecosystem, the development of Hong Kong's AI industry still faces many challenges.

Peter Chan said, for example, that for the processing and analysis of large-scale data, Hong Kong still needs to further improve its computing power, which may require greater investment and infrastructure support. Data privacy and protection issues also need to be strictly regulated to ensure the sustainable development of the AI industry.

Computing power is one of the important infrastructures supporting the development of the AI industry, and relevant plans have been made in the 2023-2024 Budget. It is proposed that a feasibility study will be conducted to establish an artificial intelligence supercomputing center in Hong Kong to provide artificial intelligence supercomputing services to local universities and research institutions, relevant government departments and industries, thereby strengthening local research and development capabilities and developing related industrial ecosystems, accelerating Hong Kong’s development in the artificial intelligence industry and related research and development.

In addition, the transformation of artificial intelligence research results into effective productivity requires integration with the industrial chain and market.

In terms of promoting technological innovation industries, Hong Kong not only attracts enterprises and talents, but also strives to promote "re-industrialization". Specific measures include setting up an advanced manufacturing center to promote the upgrading and transformation of the manufacturing industry with innovative technology; and plans to introduce more intelligent production lines in Hong Kong, with the goal of quadrupling the number of intelligent production lines from the current approximately 30 to more than 130 within five years; and Strengthen cooperation with the Hong Kong Productivity Council to help companies shift to smart production, etc.

As the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area accelerates, the simultaneous transformation to "intelligent" based on years of accumulation in the original manufacturing and service industries will form a good superposition effect with Hong Kong in terms of application achievement transformation and high-end production capabilities. Further fill Hong Kong’s shortcomings in the midstream and downstream industries.

Huang Keqiang, CEO of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, once said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Securities Times that for some hard technology companies and high-end manufacturing industries, Hong Kong has set up advanced manufacturing centers. Start-ups can first conduct small-scale prototype manufacturing and testing in Hong Kong before doing business. After the model is run through, large-scale production will be carried out in the mainland.

The different advantages of each city in the Greater Bay Area will provide strong competitiveness for the development of the artificial intelligence industry in the region. For example, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are both national leading areas for artificial intelligence innovation and application. Shenzhen has the foundation of the communications industry, and its development focuses on smart chips, smart connected cars, smart robots, etc. It also has the AI industry from the basic layer to the technical layer to the application layer. There are many industry leading companies; Guangzhou focuses on industry, commerce and other fields. Foshan, Dongguan, Zhuhai and other cities in the Greater Bay Area have also issued policies related to the development of artificial intelligence.

"I think the potential of AI is far from being fully exploited, and more innovation and practice are needed to discover new application scenarios." Peter Chan said, "As a leading financial and business center in the world, Hong Kong has multiple unique advantages. It is full of potential in developing the AI industry."

If you look at the entire Chinese market, the top three cities in the AI industry are still firmly occupied by the three cities in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Beijing wins because of its rich academic resources in universities, which are stronger than technology; Shanghai wins because of its developed industry and diverse application scenarios; while Shenzhen is somewhere in between. In addition, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Suzhou are gradually catching up with the AI trend through industries such as intelligent manufacturing and autonomous driving.

For Hong Kong, which lacks scenarios, lacks infrastructure and misses out on the first-mover advantage, developing AI is really stressful.

But in the long run, with Hong Kong’s heavy investment in innovation and technology and its complementary advantages with the Greater Bay Area, the potential of the AI industry still needs to be unleashed, and we may have to wait and see.