Harvard and Cambridge to attend Hong Kong forum on role of humanities in AI age

The organiser of a forum that will bring together Hong Kong and overseas universities later this month has said it hopes to spark debate on the role of humanities programmes in an era increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence (AI).

The Global University Presidents and Leaders Summit, organised by the Hong Kong Association for External Friendship, will be held on October 27 and 28 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.

Presidents or senior management from more than 50 universities, including Harvard and Cambridge, are set to attend the event.

The heads of 10 local universities will each moderate a panel discussion on education, the future of the workforce and AI. Five government ministers from different bureaus will also attend the summit.

Lawmaker and law professor Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, founding president of the association, said one focus would be the role universities could play in the age of AI, emphasising the importance of humanities programmes when developing programmes related to the technology.

“Are we as institutions just blindly developing AI and competing to be the fastest? Are we going to lose our way? Should we start promoting the humanities again and place greater value on philosophers and promote human connections?” she said.

“When it comes to designing a system, it is not purely about technology, which can be mechanical. The humanities cannot simply be allowed to disappear.

She noted that some AI companies had begun hiring philosophy graduates to set ethical guidance and principles for the use of the technology, adding that students studying AI in the future might also need to take humanities courses.

The forum would also offer a window for students and institutional leaders from outside the city to learn more about Hong Kong, she added.

The trips of one student from each participating university would be subsidised, she said.

“Many Westerners, especially the younger generation, have actually never been to Hong Kong. From our experience in 2024, several outstanding students mentioned that they never expected Hong Kong to be like this, as they were surprised to find English everywhere,” she said.

The second edition of the forum, which was launched in 2024, will also focus on the Northern Metropolis university towns and collaboration between government, industry, academia, research and investment.

The chief executive’s policy address last month confirmed that the core campus area of three university towns near the border would span up to 300 hectares.

The government also opened applications for interested institutions to submit their proposals for the first university town, in Hung Shui Kiu, by the end of this year, with the results to be announced in early 2027.

Leung said universities with vision would invest in the new education towns by collaborating with other institutions, as it would help them open up the enormous market of mainland China.

The government earlier admitted it would be a huge challenge for overseas institutions to set foot in the university towns, as it was a self-financing project.

“Prestigious universities have money to invest; the concerns are whether they have such a vision to invest in the towns and what we in Hong Kong could offer them,” Leung said.

“They will see how big the Chinese market is after setting foot in Hong Kong. When they cannot directly enter mainland China, Hong Kong is their stepping stone.”

She stressed that the university towns would have to close the gap that has long kept Hong Kong research from becoming an industry.

“The mainland moved early, promising support for overseas talent to return to Shenzhen with their intellectual property,” she said. “Hong Kong could have done exactly the same.”

She said policymakers and investors must go into university laboratories themselves to spot work with business potential.

On talent retention, Leung acknowledged there was no way to stop people from leaving, but she said universities would have to compete on their own to attract the best and find partners.