Can Hong Kong keep up with the rise of the robots?

In a classic scene from science-fiction thriller i, Robot, mass-produced NS-5 humanoid robots churned out from the production line assert control over the human race after a self-evolving supercomputer governing their behaviour goes rogue.

The film is set in 2035, and while such prospects may sound far-fetched in 2017, alarm bells were set off recently when a Japanese insurance firm sacked 34 staff to make way for an artificial intelligence system.

The computer software, manufacturer IBM claims, is a cognitive technology that can “think like a human”, and the company that adopted it aimed to achieve 30 per cent extra efficiency when calculating insurance payouts for clients.

Japan has been a leading nation for embracing innovation and technologies, leaving its Asian neighbours – and perhaps even the world – in the dust.

But Hong Kong can do just as well – if not better – says an academic who specialises in mechanical, aerospace, electronic and computer engineering.

Professor Michael Wang Yu from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said there had been a very strong sense of the need to build an innovation ecosystem.

“The [Hong Kong] government has been trying to demonstrate more mature technologies that could be helpful for some local companies … I mean robotic technologies that have been tested out already and utilised somewhere else,” he said.