Published : 2025-02-27
As the AI large model DeepSeek triggers a new wave of global AI trend, Hong Kong is not lagging behind and has recently released its first large language model (LLM), HKGAI V1.
HKGAI V1 uses DeepSeek as its open-source model, with capabilities like interactive dialogue, content generation, legal case referencing, and environmental analysis.
HKGAI V1 is expected to open by end of 2025
The government-funded Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre (HKGAI) announced the release of the HKGAI V1 large model on February 25.
Developed by a team led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), the model is based on the DeepSeek open-source model, trained through "full parameter fine-tuning".
With Hong Kong's largest local knowledge base for large models, HKGAI V1 supports Cantonese, English, and Mandarin. The model is equipped with dialogue and reasoning systems, allowing users to input commands into the system to receive real-time responses or generate specified content.
The HKGAI V1 model covers five systems, including "Hong Kong Speech" (港話通), "Hong Kong Writing" (港文通), "Hong Kong Meeting" (港會通), "Hong Kong Law" (港法通), and "Hong Kong Environment" (港環通).
These can respectively assist users in drafting documents, generating meeting summaries, providing references to Hong Kong laws and cases, and automatically generating environmental reports, which greatly improve work efficiency.
Relevant applications have been put on trial in over 70 government departments. If it can be widely and stably applied within the government, it is targeted to be launched for public use by the end of this year, provided that there is sufficient load-bearing capacity.
In addition to understanding and generating text, HKGAI V1 can also generate music and images.
At the press conference, the team demonstrated and played an AI-generated video in which Fok Ying-tung (霍英東), an entrepreneur and politician in Hong Kong who passed away in 2006, "self-narrates".
Faye Wong's song What the World's Given Me (《世界贈予我的》) was also used as a demonstration. After inputting the lyrics, a new song was generated by the system, which was then performed by "digital person" with realistic effect.
Read more: A look at China's top AI tools: DeepSeek, Kimi and Doubao
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DeepSeek and HKGAI models organically combined
Reflecting on the development history of HKGAI V1, Sun Dong, the Secretary of Innovation, Technology and Industry said, "In this wave of technology represented by artificial intelligence, Hong Kong has not been absent."
According to Sun Dong, at the beginning of 2023, ChatGPT was launched, but it was not open to Hong Kong. Therefore, the Government has organised multiple seminars with local experts, professors, and research teams to explore how to carve out a new path for the development of generative artificial intelligence in Hong Kong.
Within a few months, the Government established the HKGAI at the fastest pace. It is led by the HKUST, with participation from four other local universities and overseas research institutions. This effort was made to research and develop LLMs for Hong Kong and actively deploy computing power facilities in Hong Kong.
In the first half of 2024, the research centre developed the first version of the LLM, "Hong Kong Writing" (a generative AI document assistance application).
With the launch of DeepSeek, the HKGAI team quickly integrated the base model architecture of DeepSeek with the excellent data processing capabilities of the HKGAI model, and then successfully launched the HKGAI V1.
Read more: What's the story of DeepSeek and its founder Liang Wenfeng?
