On November 30th, the first “Hong Kong International Artificial Intelligence Summit” jointly sponsored by Tsinghua University and the University of Hong Kong was held at the University of Hong Kong. The summit focused on the prospect and application of artificial intelligence technology in the financial field, aiming to further promote research and exchange on artificial intelligence and promote in-depth cooperation between the scientific research field and industry. Academician Qiu Yong, President of Tsinghua University, Academician Xiang Zhang, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, Professor Joseph Klafter，President of Tel Aviv University, and Mr. Nicholas Yang, GBS, JP, Secretary for Innovation and Technology, HKSAR government, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches.

Also present at the summit were Yang Bin, Vice President of Tsinghua University, Dr. Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, Dean of Academic Board of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS) and Director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IAI) at Tsinghua University, and 2000 Turing Prize winner, Academician Tan Tieniu, Research Fellow of the Automation Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of the Intelligent Perception and Computing Research Center, Academician Zhang Bo, Summit Co-Chairman and Dean of Tsinghua University Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Dr. Christpher Chao, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. The morning session of the summit was presided over by Professor W. John Kao, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, and the afternoon session was presided over by Professor Yang Bin.

On behalf of Tsinghua University, President Qiu welcomed all the guests present at the summit. President Qiu noted that artificial intelligence, as one of the key driving forces of the new round of scientific revolution, is the new frontier and future direction of scientific development, with a far-reaching impact on human society and civilization. Universities will play an indispensable role in the development of artificial intelligence, in terms of cultivating talents, making breakthroughs in fundamental research, innovation promotion and interdisciplinary research. President Qiu said that Tsinghua University has a long tradition of AI research. In 1978, the Department of Computer Science and Technology in Tsinghua University established the “Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Control” teaching and research group. Over the past decades, Tsinghua University has been paying close attention to the development of artificial intelligence and investing significantly in fundamental research of AI. Tsinghua University will continue to promote interdisciplinary research, which will be the main trend of scientific research and the fountain of innovation for AI and other cutting-edge technologies.

Hong Kong University’s President Xiang Zhang welcomed all the guests present at the summit and thanked Tsinghua University for its support. The ideas expressed at this summit will have a positive impact on Hong Kong’s financial industry, block chain, machine learning, online learning and communications between the academic community and industry, and thus boost closer and deeper cooperation in the field of AI.

The summit consisted of keynote reports, talks and discussions. Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, Tan Tieniu, David Tse, Professor of Electronic Engineering at Stanford University, and Academician at the US Academy of Engineering, David A. Patterson, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and 2017 Turing Prize winner, Professor Victor O.K. Li, Chair of Information Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong and Professor W.K. Li, from the Department of Statistics &Actuarial Science at the University of Hong Kong were amongst the distinguished guest speakers.

During the round-table discussions, participants discussed several topics such as “financial technology” and “application of artificial intelligence”.

More than 300 domestic and foreign experts, scholars, and figures from industry attended the summit.

Writer: Angela Hua

Editors: John Olbrich, Guo Lili

Source: Tsinghua University News