Hong Kong Cyberport’s Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Center (AISC), first of this kind currently in Hong Kong, has officially commenced operations, and the AI Lab is also open concurrently.

Alvin Kwock, Co-founder of AIFT (formerly known as OneDegree Group) said in a statement on Tuesday that the launch of AISC is a key strategic step of the arms race that accelerate the timeline for Cyberport ecosystem to achieve AI General Intelligence (AGI), and thus position Hong Kong as a leader in technological innovation.

“Given the strategic importance of AISC, we should adhere to the best practice of risk managements across the value chain,” he said.

According to him, these include insurance coverage to protect AISC’s critical infrastructure (such as servers, GPUs and specialized networking hardware) against natural disasters and allow them to recover from any physical damages quickly.

In the events that disrupts the AISC’s operations, he noted this can also helps offset financial losses from downtime.

He also said these downtimes have caused significant disruptions from time to time.

Meanwhile, he said technology based security and compliance solutions are needed to scrutinize AI models for vulnerabilities and ensure alignment with Responsible AI benchmarks, promoting fairness, safety, security and bias mitigation within AI systems.

“We have invested in this space for almost two years, and this is what Cymetrics Vulcan has been built to do,” he said.

He said AIFT is committed to provide security layers (cybersecurity and insurance) for mega trends like AI and Web3.

At the opening ceremony, Prof Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, HKSAR, said the government has introduced a number of policies and measures to improve the development of the local AI ecosystem orderly and promote the ‘digital-intelligent’ application of AI.

“The official establishment of AISC will become an indispensable and important pillar of the development of AI in Hong Kong,“ he said.

He added the supercomputing center will not only provide advanced computing capabilities to promote industry development, but also become a cradle for converging and cultivating AI-related quality professionals.

“The supercomputing center will bring together talents specializing in computing power, data and algorithm technology, coupling it with Cyberport’s AI Lab, Cyberport will provide an innovative platform for AI ecosystem partners and enterprises to connect with relevant application scenarios, explore product innovations and integrate with technologies, facilitating the transformation and application of more technologies, thereby injecting new impetus into the high-quality development of Hong Kong’s economy,” he added.

To promote the development of AI in Hong Kong, the HKSAR government announced in the 2023 Policy Address that Cyberport would set up an AISC in phases from this year onwards to provide research teams with the necessary computing hardware.

In addition, the HKSAR government also announced in the 2024-2025 Budget that HK$3 billion ($385.76 million) were allocated to Cyberport to implement a three-year AISS, which mainly provides funding support to five categories of eligible entities, including local institutions, research and development (R&D) centers and enterprises to utilize the computing power of the AISC to achieve more breakthroughs in scientific research.

The first phase of the AISS was launched in early October and multiple applications from eligible entities, including AI start-ups, local institutions, R&D centers, and strategic enterprises, were received.

The funding has also been set aside to facilitate works including strengthening the cyber and data security of AISC in addition to promotion and education.

It’s expected the scheme will allow the industry to make good use of the computing facilities as well as attract relevant talents, enterprises and R&D projects from China and around the world to land in Hong Kong, thereby providing necessary support to facilitate the many aspects of local AI and related industries developments.

The AI Lab brings together the R&D capabilities of AI ecosystem partners in Hong Kong, providing them with an interactive space to showcase AI solutions and launch service products.

Nearly 15 companies have showcased their innovations at the ceremony, including local start-ups, strategic enterprises based at Cyberport, and ecosystem partners, to facilitate AI-related R&D and collaborations.

Furthermore, the AI Lab provides AI ecosystem partners and enterprises with a platform to experience different supercomputing tools, explore product innovations, converge technologies, which could be applied to different industries and use cases to promote the transformation and realization of innovative technologies, thereby driving new quality productive forces to foster the development of digital economy and smart city.

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