RTHK on Friday signed agreements with a research centre at Chinese University (CUHK) and the Science Park to share data and test the use of artificial intelligence in public broadcasting, aiming to promote technological development in the city.
Speaking at a signing ceremony, the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Sun Dong, said he was pleased that RTHK has embraced technology in the new digital era, adding that he believed the broadcaster will be able to further improve its operation and workflow.
The Director of Broadcasting, Eddie Cheung, said RTHK is committed to promoting the use of technology.
“Technology will not replace people. Technology is our friend. If we use it well, manage it and embrace it, it will improve our lives and our future,” he said.
He said RTHK would let CUHK researchers use the broadcaster’s Cantonese database to train their AI models.
Professor Helen Meng, director of the Centre for Perceptual and Interactive Intelligence, said the database would be very useful in training their “data-hungry” chatbots and improving text-to-speech AI technology.
“Because there are only about 60 million people around the world speaking Cantonese. If you think about Cantonese data in comparison with English data or Putonghua data, it’s really scarce,” she said.
“Hong Kong is a cosmopolitan city, so when we speak, it’s predominantly Cantonese language but we also mix with other languages. It’s not just any kind of Cantonese but Hong Kong-style Cantonese where we have our own unique vocabularies, nuances, and our own colloquialism.”
She noted that data security policies would be strictly enforced during the two-year collaboration.
Separately, RTHK and the Science Park signed a three-year cooperation agreement to promote a “smart broadcasting” system, which will allow local tech companies to access the broadcaster’s database to train more AI models in areas such as sign language and instant translation services.
The two organisations will co-host an artificial intelligence and robotics competition, the ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest, to attract more overseas tech talent to the city.
