A donation of HK$200 million ($25.74 million) from a local charitable foundation was announced on Monday to propel the city’s artificial intelligence ambitions, especially in building a mobile application for the city’s first homegrown AI language model, HKGAI V1.

Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, said that the public should be able to access the mobile app for HKGAI V1 within months.

The donation, made by Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group to the Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre (HKGAI), is a vital investment that will foster diversification in AI-led tech applications and drive their integration into residents’ everyday lives, Paul Chan Mo-po, Hong Kong’s financial secretary, said on Monday at the donation ceremony.

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Addressing the ceremony, Chan reaffirmed the SAR government’s commitment to optimizing the city’s innovation and technology ecosystem. He emphasized that the upstream research and development efforts should go in tandem with midstream - and downstream-outcome transformation, particularly within a framework that features extensive application scenarios.

The country has long been at the forefront of AI technology development, especially with the launch of the “AI Plus” initiative last year, the commitment to which was underscored in this year’s Government Work Report, said Chan.

Hong Kong is well positioned to catch up and contribute to this national AI-led boom, leveraging both its talent and capital edges, said Chan.

He noted that data science- and AI-related disciplines at three local universities have earned them places among the global top 25. On the talent front, the city’s superconnector role — enabled by the “one country, two systems” principle — makes it a highland for such talent, with its robust international exchanges and cooperation.

“The launch of China’s DeepSeek, alongside the surge in AI innovation, is creating an even more favorable environment for deeper growth in innovation and technology in Hong Kong,” said Daryl Ng Win-kong, director of the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and deputy chairman of the Sino Group, adding: “We are delighted to be part of this very important journey, supporting the holistic development of the innovation and technology ecosystem in the city.”

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The fund will be allocated mainly to advancing the development of HKGAI V1, with a focus on popularizing its trilingual dialog system that supports inquiries in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English, said Guo Yike, provost of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and director of InnoHK’s HKGAI.

Launched in the first half of last year, the large language model, HKGAI V1, has since undergone pilot testing in over 70 government departments. It has been able to upgrade its processing capabilities in line with DeepSeek’s full-parameter fine-tuning and training power, unveiled earlier last month.

“The fund will greatly assist us in extending its deployment citywide, preparing it for use in more everyday scenarios within the local community,” said Guo. “Hopefully, it will bring the model up for a wider application in the education, legal, medical, and transportation sectors.”

Sun added that the fund will be allocated for the development of a market-driven service platform, primarily in the form of a mobile application version of HKGAI.

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He said that one of the key visions for AI development is that it should better serve the general public, and that the government welcomes stakeholders from all sectors to chip in more resources for this.

“The donation will be used to support the establishment of manpower and computing power for a mobile version, and we hope the next several months will see the service being made available to the public,” said Sun.

At the ceremony, Ng also said that Sino Group will host the fourth Hong Kong Science Fair in June, providing students with opportunities to showcase their creativity. “We saw a future driven by curiosity, compassion, and the spirit of innovation amongst our Hong Kong youth,” said Ng. “We believe that nurturing innovation and technology talent from a young age is essential.”

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com