FS witnesses Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group donate $200 million in support of AI development in Hong Kong
The Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, attended the donation ceremony of the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group in support of AI development in Hong Kong today (March 10), witnessing the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group donate $200 million to the Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Center (HKGAI) under the InnoHK research clusters to support the centre in establishing a service platform to provide Hong Kong citizens with the chatbot service "HKChat" based on the locally developed large language model HKGAI V1. During the ceremony, the Director of the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Deputy Chairman of Sino Group, Mr Daryl Ng, presented the cheque to the Provost of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Director of InnoHK HKGAI, Professor Guo Yike. The Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, and the Commissioner for Innovation and Technology, Mr Ivan Lee, attended and witnessed the donation ceremony.
Mr Chan expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group for their support. He said that currently, AI is undergoing rapid development, which is redefining the core competitiveness of economies and reshaping the medium- to long-term landscape of the global economy. During the third session of the 14th National People's Congress and the third session of the 14th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee last week, Premier Li Qiang mentioned the need to continue advancing the "AI+" initiative in the Government Work Report, emphasising support for the extensive application of large-scale AI models, as well as the integration of digital technologies with our country’s manufacturing and market strengths. By fostering closer collaboration among the Government and the industry, academia, research and investment sectors, accelerating the development of AI as a core industry of Hong Kong, the city can be developed into an international exchange and co-operation hub for the AI industry.
Mr Ng said, "We are pleased to foster the holistic development of the I&T (innovation and technology) ecosystem while supporting the Government's goal of attracting and encouraging more international talent to Hong Kong. It is an honour to contribute to this significant milestone for AI development in Hong Kong, facilitating locally developed AI platforms to be accessible to both industry and the public. We are thankful for the opportunity to support the development of a more inclusive AI future that will benefit the lives of the people of Hong Kong."
Professor Guo stated, "This generous donation will provide tremendous momentum to our research and development efforts. While expressing our profound gratitude, we are deeply aware of the expectations from Hong Kong society and the responsibilities that lie on our shoulders. Having recently launched our new model HKGAI V1, we are currently fully engaged in developing and optimising this model as well as a series of applications. In particular, we are developing the 'HKChat', a locally developed AI chatbot service to be used by Hong Kong citizens. This donation has provided crucial support for this endeavour. We will strive to ensure our work meets and exceeds expectations."
InnoHK is a major I&T initiative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government which aims to foster global research collaboration, comprising Health@InnoHK, which focuses on healthcare technologies, and AIR@InnoHK, which focuses on artificial intelligence and robotics technologies, with a total of 30 research centres established. InnoHK has successfully formed collaborations with more than 30 world-renowned universities and research institutes, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, etc. The collaborating non-local universities and research institutions are from 12 different economies, pooling together about 2 500 researchers locally and from all over the world.
The HKGAI is one of the 30 research centres under InnoHK. Its goal is to establish Hong Kong's own AI foundational models and ecosystem. The HKGAI is developing a series of open-source foundational models to create technologies applicable to text and image generation, medical diagnosis, legal affairs and other applications. Furthermore, the centre will develop "HKChat", an AI chatbot that integrates local data, knowledge bases, and language requirements, supporting Cantonese, English, and Putonghua.
FS witnesses Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group donate $200 million in support of AI development in Hong Kong Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
FS witnesses Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group donate $200 million in support of AI development in Hong Kong Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
