2021年7月8日星期四

2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference – Hong Kong Session (世界人工智能大會 - 香港分會場)

The first Hong Kong Session in the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) was held on 8th July 2021 in HKSTP.  The main conference was held in Shanghai. The theme is “Connect the World Wisely, Together for City Success” (智聯世界,眾智成城).  WAIC has been successfully running since 2018 and is co-organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, and other institutions. I am honor to meet Mr. Herbert Chia (Data Innovation Lab) and get his signature on the book “Nature of Big Data”.  We took a photo for memory in front of the conference banner.


In the beginning, Mrs. Carrie Lam (Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) gave an opening speech.  She said Hong Kong supported the 14th Five-Year Plan of Mainland China especially Innovation and Technology for data science and AI, as well as cross-over disciplines.  She also briefed two InnoHK platform established to connect world-class scientist and invited them to R&D in Hong Kong.


Then Dr. Sunny Chai (Chairman, HKSTP) gave welcome speech.  He said AI can innovate for different industries. Science Park nurtured many startups and raised much funds and investment.  He also mentioned the Hong Kong - Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park and its concept that “One Zone, Two Parks”.


And then all guests and speakers took a group photo.


After that Mr. Alfred Sit Wing-hang, JP (Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) gave guest speech. He said that "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035" indicated clear support for Hong Kong's development into an international I&T hub and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Loop has been included as one of the four major platforms of co-operation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).


Finally WAIC Hong Kong connected with WAIC Shanghai virtually, and organized an MOU signing ceremony with the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to join The Global Artificial Intelligence Academic Alliance (GAIAA).


The first speaker was Prof Jiaya Jia (Founder, Smart More Corporation Limited and Tenured Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) and his topic entitled “Core Principles of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Manufacturing”  (AI與智能製造的核心原則). Firstly, Prof. Jia said industry went into intelligent era and he briefed the history that automatization in 1940, informatization in 1970 and intelligentization in 2020.


Then he explained Intelligent Manufacturing that the key word is Intelligent.  Automation is only arm but Intelligent is brain of manufacturing! He then compared three revolution core principles including generalization, fundamental resource and feature of new technology.


After that Prof. Jia compared the characteristics of AI Industry and Industry Scene that had many contradictions.  Therefore, it was found difficult to implement industry AI. 


Finally, Prof. Jia said only system was able to integrate algorithm automatically with few tailor-made design, AI cross industries for mass production would happen.  Lastly, he introduced his company “SmartMore” and its solution for systematic integration of AI and Industry 4.0.


The second speaker was Prof Lionel Ni (Founding President, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)) and his presentation named “AI Drives Cross-disciplinary Collaboration”. 


Firstly, Prof. Ni briefed the history of AI and discussed three peaks. He said machine learning become necessary tools in R&D.


Then he briefed their cross-campus and cross-disciplinary collaboration within HKUST. He said no overlapping between HK and Guangzhou campus so that they would cooperation rather than competition.


Finally, Prof. Ni introduced their AI driven cross-disciplinary researches included Data Science + AI, IoT + AI, Computational Media and Art + AI, Bioscience and Biomedical Engineering + AI, Intelligent Transportation + AI, Smart Manufacturing + AI, Robotics and Autonomous Systems + AI, Advanced Materials + AI, Financial Technology + AI, etc. Lastly, he raised some challenges that incentivized AI expert to work with other domain experts and make deeper impact, as well as the next big thing in AI after key deep learning algorithm proposed in 2006. 

Prof Guo Yike (Vice-President (Research and Development, Hong Kong Baptist University) was the third speaker and his presentation topic was “Building Platform Technologies for Symbiotic Creativity in Hong Kong”. He said a New Era of AI Creativity had come and AI-based Art Tech drives a new revolution that transforms the creative and cultural industries.


Then Prof. Guo mentioned the grand challenge about symbiotic creativity (共生創造). He also pointed out three gaps that “No environment to collect human-in-the-loop art data”, “No training data with human experience featured” and “No learning algorithm beyond mimicking”.


After that Prof. Guo explained three directions of Art Tech for manifestation and delivery and they were “Comprehensive XR”, “Affordable and Ubiquitous Capturing” and “Human-machine Embodied Interation”.


Finally, he mentioned the platform deployment and application included “Research Theatre (HKBU)”, “Demonstrative Application and Digital Art” and “Policy Network” that increase impact. 


Mr Herbert Chia (Venture Partner, Sequoia Capital China Fund and Board of Director, HKSTP) was the fourth speaker and his topic named “Cross-border Data Exchange to promote AI Development in Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area so as to achieve Smart City Development” (跨境資料互通促大灣區與香港AI開發實現智慧城市發展). He said one of key characteristics on digital economic is data to be production factor.  He also mentioned the major challenges in precise city management.


Then Mr. Chia used this diagram to demonstrate that Hong Kong adopt both eastern and western culture based on different apps available.  And then he also briefed the digitalization industries included 5G, IC, AI, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Blockchain and Platform Economic, etc.


After that he briefed the high quality development in China after launched of the 14th Five-Year Plan.  It started to focus on information security and data security.


Finally, Mr. Chia briefed the policy of GBA and discussed the data protection ordinance in EU.  He was found Dubai was pioneer and its data protection law was aligned with OECD in 2018 (updated its DPL in 2004).


The last speaker was Prof Anthony So (Associate Dean (Student Affairs), Faculty of Engineering and Deputy Master, Morningside College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong) and his topic named “Ruminations on AI and the Future of Education”. His concern was “Technology in Education”.


Firstly, he pointed out four dimensions of AI in teaching and learning and they were Personalized learning, Automated grading, Instant feedback and Highly scalable.


However, the true situation was not as ideal as you think.  For zoom teaching during Covid-19, most students are closed the camera and only lecturer showed his face.  Prof. So also pointed out some bias happened using AI in Education.


Finally, Prof. So discussed “Design concepts for AI in Learning”.  He also discussed challenges and risks such as Transparency, Fairness, Bias, Privacy and Security.


A Young Innovation Roundtable was held afterward.  Mr Shang Hailong, General Manager, Sense Time Hong Kong and Macau is MC on this roundtable (Right 1).


The panel comments are summarized as follows. (Start from left)

i)                    Ms Kedi Wang, Manager, Intact Lab, Intact Financial

She said their mother company was from Canada and no culture boundary work with Hong Kong employees.  Their lab was from 6 staff upto 25 staff now.  However, she observed to recruit more than 5 years AI experience talent was difficult.

ii)        Mr Lit Fung, Managing Director, Overseas Business, Geek+International Co., Ltd;

Mr. Fung said their company benefited during Covid period because of robotic delivery demand increase.

iii)                Dr. Miles Wen, CEO of Fano Labs

He come back from USA since 2015 and focused on AI development specific for voice analysis.

iv)                Dr Jiang Xin, Director of Noah Speech and Semantics Lab, Huawel;

Dr. Xin said they would continuously invest on AI and focus on software & ecosystem.

v)                  Dr Crystal Fok, Director, STP Platform, HKSTP;

HKSTP provided different platform to assist their AI & Robotic development.

vi)      Dr Liu Qifeng, EVP & Secretary General, Hong Kong Society of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics,

Dr. Liu compared AI academic results between HK and Mainland China.  He found that HK is little but high quality and Mainland China is huge but middle quality that similar to USA and UK.

At the end, all panelist took a group photo.

Reference:

WAIC - https://www.worldaic.com.cn/

CAAI - http://www.caai.cn/

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