Hong Kong is not prepared for artificial intelligence

[nivek2046]

Artificial intelligence is the greatest long-term threat to the economy of Hong Kong.

As a service economy, almost all industries in Hong Kong will be affected - banking & finance, supply chain managment, tourism, retail/wholesales, law, medicine, surveying, education, IT, shipping/logistics, etc.

Yet, none of the principal officials have a IT background. Most of them can't even spell 'artificial intelligence' or 'cloud computing'.

We are spending $580 billion on Tomorrow Lantau, but we have zero strategy or policy to counter the greatest threat to our economy.

Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore all have senior officials with IT backgrounds. The economies of all these jurisdictions are benefiting from artificial intelligence.

We need a policy on artificial intelligence now.

[drumbrake]

From one of the local universities:

"With GenAI students can produce error free English essays so we no-longer need a language centre".

[aw451]

AI is a trend just like bitcoin was last year. We're all in about being the crypto capital of the world or whatever. Some other part of the GBA will probably be the AI capital etc...

[tf19]

AI is a trend just like bitcoin was last year. We're all in about being the crypto capital of the world or whatever. Some other part of the GBA will probably be the AI capital etc...

Completely disagree. From a productivity and value creation perspective, I see AI in the same light as the advent of the Internet 20 years ago and Data & Analytics 10 years ago. The extent to which AI can supplement and to some extent replace existing processes and people is mind boggling.

I'm also excited to see the evolution of human / AI interface. 20 years ago before we had modern development frameworks such as AngularJS or Low Code / No Code tools which makes software development relatively easy, I recall coding Java on Notepad and using a command line compiler and later on semi-advanced (but still dumb) editors such as Eclipse. I think the stage AI is at right now, is still in that Notepad stage of coding.

Web3 on the other hand is complete BS.

[aw451]

Completely disagree. From a productivity and value creation perspective, I see AI in the same light as the advent of the Internet 20 years ago and Data & Analytics 10 years ago. The extent to which AI can supplement and to some extent replace existing processes and people is mind boggling.

I'm also excited to see the evolution of human / AI interface. 20 years ago before we had modern development frameworks such as AngularJS or Low Code / No Code tools which makes software development relatively easy, I recall coding Java on Notepad and using a command line compiler and later on semi-advanced (but still dumb) editors such as Eclipse. I think the stage AI is at right now, is still in that Notepad stage of coding.

Web3 on the other hand is complete BS.

NoCode has been a thing for years but still hasn't replaced software engineers, in fact salaries in Hong Kong are skyrocketing and we are finding it harder and harder to find talent.

It's easy to create an MVP but I have yet to see any good quality NoCode software. And, once again, bitcoin was also "just in early stages". You can tell AI is all hype because the same people who got fired from Shitcoin companies are now all touting AI.

This is coming from someone who did their master in AI 15 years ago (yes AI isn't actually new)

[mtkl]

What about normal human intelligence?

Is there enough going around?

[East_coast]

Artificial intelligence is the greatest long-term threat to the economy of Hong Kong.

As a service economy, almost all industries in Hong Kong will be affected - banking & finance, supply chain managment, tourism, retail/wholesales, law, medicine, surveying, education, IT, shipping/logistics, etc.

Yet, none of the principal officials have a IT background. Most of them can't even spell 'artificial intelligence' or 'cloud computing'.

We are spending $580 billion on Tomorrow Lantau, but we have zero strategy or policy to counter the greatest threat to our economy.

Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore all have senior officials with IT backgrounds. The economies of all these jurisdictions are benefiting from artificial intelligence.

We need a policy on artificial intelligence now.

What do you think a government official can do to help with Ai?

Ai won't respect national borders very well.

Having good legislation? But what is good? The situation is moving too fast so we just need an executive that looks to take the best laws from around the world, localise them and then a legislature to apply some deliberation and improve them before quickly getting in and updating them.

I would put trust in a swift but very robust law making process that casts a wide net for ideas and stays connected with the worlds other lawmaking bodies than another titled position in government

[tf19]

NoCode has been a thing for years but still hasn't replaced software engineers, in fact salaries in Hong Kong are skyrocketing and we are finding it harder and harder to find talent.

It's easy to create an MVP but I have yet to see any good quality NoCode software. And, once again, bitcoin was also "just in early stages". You can tell AI is all hype because the same people who got fired from Shitcoin companies are now all touting AI.

This is coming from someone who did their master in AI 15 years ago (yes AI isn't actually new)

I agree that Low Code / No Code is very fluffy but we've been experimenting on using GPT functions on top of API's to automate previously tedious things like data mapping in a much more productive manner. I think that LC/NC front ends + AI powered middle / back functions could be pretty powerful (not to mention that AI can easily replicate LC/NC UI builds). Legacy ETL companies such as Alteryx or Informatica + AI will be a really interesting space to watch.

Edit:
I also think a key difference between DLT / Blockchain and AI is that AI tends to exist around the fringes of processes (at least for now) whereas DLT proposes itself to be a replacement for core solutions (including currency!). Being an ancillary function (e.g., customer service chat bots) to enhance features is much easier to understand and adapt vs disrupting whole business systems (e.g., core banking, ledgers, etc).

In that sense, AI is much easier for the lay person to understand hence a virtuous cycle of adoption in the same way the internet was taken up.

[tf19]

Another fascinating aspect to all of this is China's role in the AI race. Clearly they've decided to diverge from Western ways while still understanding the importance of the tech. I've enjoyed watching China have a go at replicating Western contraband such as smartphone Operating Systems, micro processors.... hell they even have their own version of the Office Suite (which sucks but hey good on them for trying). It's like a Galapagos Island of technology and innovation.

My big question is whether or not HK is forced to follow China's rules or be allowed to use Western tech - it's going to be a closely watched doctrine by all MNC's operating in HK. I suspect that HK will follow down the path of the former, in which case this dump will just be another 3rd tier Chinese village in the future.

[newhkpr]

What about normal human intelligence?

Is there enough going around?

We only value the patriotic kind now.