Miles (Co-Founder & CEO, Fano Labs, Dr Miles Wen), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon. It is my great pleasure to join you all at the Fanovation 2024. This year’s theme, “AI for Secure Transformation: Navigating AI-powered Performance with Trust and Safety”, is undoubtedly a subject of great relevance and interest to us all. The Forum today provides an excellent platform for industry leaders to exchange their invaluable insights and perspectives on the development, adoption and transformative potential of AI with security and trust as the backbone.

AI is a pivotal driving force behind the current wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation. It is a powerful engine that cultivates new quality productive forces and achieves high-quality development. AI is not only reshaping operations across various sectors, including healthcare, finance, transportation and manufacturing, but also unlocking new opportunities for innovation and growth.

In March this year, the Central People’s Government introduced the “AI+” initiative in the Government Work Report, aiming to advance research and application of big data, AI and other technologies, and to build a globally competitive digital industry cluster. In Hong Kong, we have already formulated a comprehensive strategy for the development of AI. The “Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint”, announced at the end of 2022, underscored our commitment to the development of the AI and data science industries. The Blueprint not only lays the foundation to promote the application of AI within the Government to enhance public services, but also provides a clear direction for building an AI ecosystem and strengthening the industrial value chain in Hong Kong.

We are proactively taking forward the development strategy outlined in the Blueprint and fostering the AI ecosystem in Hong Kong. This multifaceted approach encompasses policy formulation, digital infrastructure enhancement, provision of computing power, advancement of research and development (R&D), talent cultivation, funding support, as well as the identification of application scenarios and use cases, thereby promoting both the application and governance of AI. Now let me highlight some of the key initiatives undertaken by the Government.

Following the announcement in the 2023 Policy Address, our Cyberport is pressing ahead at full speed with the establishment of the AI Supercomputing Centre (AISC), with a view to supporting the computing demand of research entities and industry sectors. The first phase of the facility will come into operation next month. By early 2026, the AISC’s computing power is expected to reach 3 000 PFLOPS (peta-floating point operations per second) and it will become one of the large-scale public supercomputing facilities in the region.

To fuel the development of the AI ecosystem, the Government has allocated $3 billion to launch a three-year AI Subsidy Scheme to support local universities, R&D centres, government departments and AI-related enterprises in leveraging the computing power of the AISC. The subsidy will also be used to strengthen the cybersecurity and data protection of the AISC, and to organise promotional and educational activities to attract Mainland and overseas AI experts, enterprises and R&D projects to come to Hong Kong.

As we navigate this exciting territory of AI, it is imperative for us to adopt a balanced approach that fosters innovation while ensuring the responsible use of AI. In this regard, the Government has formulated the “Ethical Artificial Intelligence Framework” to provide guidance for government bureaux and departments in their implementation of projects that harness AI technologies, including generative AI. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) also issued the “Guidance on the Ethical Development and Use of AI” and “Artificial Intelligence: Model Personal Data Protection Framework” to assist corporations in complying with the relevant provisions of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance when adopting AI.

These guidelines empower the Government and various sectors of society to responsibly leverage the capabilities of AI in a manner that complies with prevailing regulations, particularly those concerning protection of personal data privacy and ethical standards. They can also ensure that the environment for innovation, development and application of AI technologies remains open and beneficial, while ethical concerns of AI adoption can be addressed.

To promote research and development, the Government has established the InnoHK research clusters to promote Hong Kong as a hub for global research collaboration. With the funding support from the Government under the InnoHK initiative, there are already 14 R&D institutions established with the focus on AI and robotic technologies, including the Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Center (HKGAI) which focuses on the research and development of generative AI technologies and large language models. The HKGAI is currently developing a large language model (LLM) and a generative AI document processing copilot application based on this locally developed LLM. To facilitate HKGAI to continuously enhance the LLM and the generative AI document processing copilot application, the copilot application is being trialed by staff across government bureaux and departments for document writing, translation, summarisation and other clerical tasks, with a view to providing feedback and comments to HKGAI to further train up the LLM and enhance the copilot application.

Last week, the Government released the Development Outline for the Hong Kong Park within the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone which outlines the vision and mission, planning and layout, development directions, strategies and objectives for the Hong Kong Park. It emphasises the focus on developing core frontier technology areas, including AI and data science. Additionally, it outlines plans to enhance essential infrastructure for AI technology development and to establish a robust management mechanism for cross-border data flow. This initiative aims to attract AI enterprises from both domestic and international markets to establish operations in the Hetao Co-operation Zone and expand their businesses.

Looking ahead, the Hong Kong Park and the Shenzhen Park in the Hetao Co-operation Zone are set to initiate pilot demonstrations for innovative applications in AI technologies, accelerating the development of the AI industry and promoting collaboration in innovation and technology among Hong Kong, other cities in the Greater Bay Area, as well as the Mainland and international markets.

Our vision is to cultivate an ecosystem where AI enterprises can flourish, supported by ethical guidelines that safeguard the interests of all citizens. While the journey towards securing a future for AI in enterprises is filled with both promises and challenges, a collaborative effort among Government, academia, industry, business and the community at large will enable us to harness AI’s transformative potential to build an innovative, inclusive and equitable future.

In closing, may I wish the Forum a great success, and everyone an inspiring experience. Thank you.

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