Hong Kong customs using AI to track down counterfeit goods – and seizures are up 30 per cent in six months
The analytics system can scour social media and shopping sites 24 hours a day
Artificial intelligence is being credited for helping Hong Kong customs officials increase seizures of fake goods sold online by about one-third in the first six months of this year, resulting in a haul of counterfeit items worth HK$1.96 million (US$247,000).
A new supercomputer they began using last December scoured websites 24 hours a day and detected close to 2,000 of the 5,200 items seized by the Customs & Excise Department.
Over the same period last year, officers netted 11,800 pieces of counterfeit goods worth HK$1.47 million.
A source said the department might look into expanding the capacity of the computer, which gathers important information during investigations, but he stressed it would complement rather than replace manual enforcement work by customs officers.
“The analytics tool saves us a lot of time screening online platforms manually,” the source said. “It screens multiple platforms at the same time and around the clock, compared with officers taking time to monitor a few sites or identify targets using search engines.”
