appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Kelly Le

Growing adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) could help empower the video gaming industry in Hong Kong, according to delegates at this year’s edition of the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum at tech hub Cyberport on Friday.
“We have seen the trend that users are more willing to interact with AI, which means virtual characters are an important direction in the entertainment and gaming industry,” Zhang Ji, a senior algorithm engineer at Alibaba Group Holding’s Institute for Intelligent Computing, said at a panel discussion at the three-day forum, which concludes on Sunday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
GenAI refers to algorithms used to create new content including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos. Recent breakthroughs in the field, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Sora, have the potential to radically change the way gaming developers approach content creation.
In the past, users only had three to five rounds of conversation with AI, according to Zhang. But with advances in GenAI, including long-text prompts and high-bandwidth memory, Zhang said users now tend to have more than 100 rounds of conversation with AI.
“With AI-enhanced efficiency in the field of games, we can generate a lot of material and dialogue content,” Zhang said. “By leveraging GenAI, we can also create new types of games that we weren’t able to do in the past.”

That development stands to benefit Hong Kong, as part of the Greater Bay Area, to burnish its credentials in AI-powered entertainment.
“Generative AI is reshaping gaming development, reducing costs, and empowering artists and innovators to create more enriched, personalised and immersive experiences for consumers,” Paul Chan Mo-po, the city’s Financial Secretary, said in his opening remarks at the forum.
Chan said the Hong Kong government is “actively supporting digitainment development”, including those at Cyberport – “home to more than 160 digitainment companies, over 250 Web 3.0 firms and over 200 AI and big data-related start-ups”.
“We are also building an AI Supercomputing Centre, and our target is to commission its first-phase facilities later this year,” Chan said. “In this year’s government budget, we have announced a subsidy scheme to support local universities, research institutes and business enterprises to use the centre’s computing power.”

With the growing adoption of GenAI, tools and resources that used to be only available to major video-gaming companies are now accessible to small firms and individual developers.
“AI has democratised the development of gaming,” Warren Cho, worldwide gaming vertical leader at Microsoft, said in his keynote speech.
He pointed out that Microsoft’s ChatGPT-enhanced Bing search engine is already being used to create 2D and 3D animation in the video gaming industry.
Still, the high cost of deploying AI tools remains an obstacle for smaller game developers.
Large language models (LLMs) – the technology underpinning GenAI services like ChatGPT – can help power creativity and productivity, but “the cost is relatively high”, Zhang said, noting that it has made some enterprises delay adoption of AI tools.
Zhang said Alibaba has worked hard to reduce the cost of using AI, as its Tongyi Qianwen family of LLMs have gone through price cuts this year. As such, these LLMs have been adopted by mainland developers to create various novel games. These models have already been adopted by more than 90,000 corporate clients on the mainland, according to Alibaba.
Meanwhile, Baidu is looking to know more about the AI requirements of companies in Hong Kong. “Right now we are cooperating with partners from all sectors in Hong Kong to learn their needs,” Shi Wei, Baidu’s general manager for Hong Kong and Macau, said on the same panel with Alibaba’s Zhang.
Shi also mentioned plans by Baidu to open an LLM centre in the city.


Chinese man sues AI firm after chatbot’s ‘auspicious’ date suggestion leads to disaster

Trump says he will create ‘AI Force’, name AI tsar

AI: 10 days that changed the course of artificial intelligence

People in China earn between US$7 and US$15,000 by licensing faces to AI content producers

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Hong Kong’s video gaming sector to get a boost from growing adoption of GenAI

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the government is “actively supporting digitainment development”. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan delivers his keynote address at the opening of the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum 2024 at tech hub Cyberport on Friday. Photo: Handout

Generative artificial intelligence is expected to help reshape video-gaming development. Photo: Handout

Huawei’s cloud services unit sees Asia-Pacific as a vast market for AI products

Huawei Cloud currently ranks as the second-largest cloud services provider in mainland China. Photo: Shutterstock

The Asia-Pacific is one of Huawei’s biggest geographic markets for cloud computing services. Photo: Shutterstock

HKMA, Cyberport collaborate on GenAI sandbox to foster adoption in city’s banking industry

The AI-generated avatars of HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue Wai-man and deputy chief Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang at the GenAI sandbox launch on Tuesday: Photo: HKMA

Hong Kong Monetary Authority executive director Carmen Chu Lap-kiu delivers the opening remarks at the GenAI sandbox launch on Tuesday. Photo: HKMA

Generative artificial intelligence refers to the algorithms and services, such as ChatGPT, that are used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos. Photo: Shutterstock

More than 600 million on mainland now use LLMs amid rapid growth in GenAI adoption: report

Chinese regulators have given the green light to 188 LLMs – averaging more than one AI model approved daily for the past six months. Photo: Shutterstock

Generative artificial intelligence is expected to help reinvigorate traditional industries on the mainland. Photo: Shutterstock

Baidu co-founder, chairman and chief executive Robin Li Yanhong speaks at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 4, 2024. Photo: AFP

Equinix to spend US$124 million on 6th Hong Kong data centre to serve Greater Bay Area

An undated photograph of the data centre managed by Equinix in Hong Kong. Photo: Equinix

PolyU’s top AI scientist Yang Hongxia seeks to revolutionise LLM development in Hong Kong

Artificial intelligence scientist Yang Hongxia, said small AI models, once put together, can outperform the most advanced large language models in specific domains. Photo: Sina

The entrance to the Hung Hom campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where artificial intelligence scientist Yang Hongxia serves as a professor at the Department of Computing. Photo: Sun Yeung

Yang Hongxia, a leading artificial intelligence scientist, previously worked on AI models at TikTok-owner ByteDance in the United States and Alibaba Group Holding’s research arm Damo Academy. Photo: PolyU

Tech

Tech Trends

Business

News

Hong Kong

City stands to benefit as this development burnishes its credentials in AI-powered entertainment


City stands to benefit as this development burnishes its credentials in AI-powered entertainment.


Hong Kong’s video gaming sector to get a boost from growing adoption of GenAI

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}City stands to benefit as this development burnishes its credentials in AI-powered entertainment

City stands to benefit as this development burnishes its credentials in AI-powered entertainment