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| 27. 05. 2018 ISSUE 9 | |||
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Foreword |
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Dear students, In these weeks, the vocabulary which has repetitively buzzed around my ears is "artificial intelligence". Yes, AI is everywhere! No matter what popular topics, e.g. the Greater Bay Area development plan, the unicorn enterprises, the cross-border usage of national funds or the US sanction on ZTE, were talked about, AI won a place for itself and topped the list most of the time. I think one of the reasons why we have got increasingly familiar with "BAT" is these big-name Chinese high-tech companies are investing heavily in AI nowadays - Baidu in automated driving, Alibaba in smart cities and Tencent in medical care. Of course, the much-heralded propaganda to peddle the business growth and stock value of "BAT" has contributed a lot to the Hongkongers' enhancement of understanding of them. Needless to say, innovation and technology (I&T) assist us to meet our daily needs and enhance living quality. They also help solve social and cultural issues, e.g. the establishment of "sharing economy", to a certain extent. Regrettably, Hong Kong lags behind the region in many areas which are regarded as assets in developing this city into a I&T centre. While Uber is changing the world of ground transportation and Airbnb has already laid siege on the hotel industry, we are still mulling a shot at the law-making process of these emerging business models. It is unquestionable that operating illegal businesses for the sake of achieving I&T should be barred. Our government is obligated to balance the rising demand for technology-driven services and the need to ensure public safety. On the other hand, it cannot shirk its responsibility for the upgrade of the infrastructure and regulatory system to enable innovative business ideas to prosper. As for us in CUHK, we are certainly expected to nurture a creative mindset, seek new solutions and dare to take action so as to accomplish I&T. But the pressing issues, in my opinion, are the reaffirmation of human touch and the strengthening of digital literacy. Try not to sit in the MTR trains and double-decker buses with your screen lit and face tilted downwards; avoid walking the streets with earpiece plugged into your smartphones; get rid of the pathological pause to snap a picture of your "food porn"…… Above all, please think wisely before you embark on incubated platforms such as Tik Tok or pour around huge properties into novel ideas like biofuel. They may provide suspicious adults with an easy access to stalk and court teenage girls, and indirectly jeopardise the forests in the third world respectively. Last but not least, do exercise your "natural intelligence" more frequently. NI is intrinsic and will not betray you. It is a vehicle to foster humanistic care, self-reflection and continued advancement. Sincerely yours, Irene Ng |
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