HKGAI and HKChat: Hong Kong's Homegrown LLM
Hong Kong has its own LLM. Not a wrapper around someone else's API — an actual model, fine-tuned from DeepSeek specifically for Hong Kong, powering a public chatbot that any HK citizen can use.
The project is called HKGAI. The chatbot is called HKChat. And the story of how it happened says a lot about where HK AI is headed.
What Is HKGAI?
The Hong Kong Generative AI Research & Development Center (HKGAI) was established in October 2023 as the sole InnoHK center dedicated to generative AI. It's led by HKUST in collaboration with five partner universities: HKU, CUHK, CityU, PolyU, and the National University of Singapore.
The center has eight work packages spanning foundation model R&D, evaluation, and industry-specific applications. But the headline output is HKGAI V1 — a full-parameter fine-tuning of DeepSeek, optimized for Hong Kong contexts.
Why Fine-Tune DeepSeek for HK?
General-purpose models handle Hong Kong poorly. They confuse traditional and simplified Chinese. They don't understand Cantonese colloquialisms. They lack context about local institutions, laws, geography, and culture.
HKGAI V1 addresses this by training on Hong Kong-specific data: local government documents, legal texts, educational materials, and cultural content. The result is a model that understands what "MTR" means, knows the difference between Wan Chai and Wan Chai North, and can engage with Hong Kong-specific questions in a way that generic models can't.
HKChat — The Public Chatbot
HKChat is the consumer-facing product built on HKGAI V1. It's a free chatbot designed for Hong Kong citizens — think ChatGPT, but fine-tuned for local needs and available without a VPN.
The chatbot handles general questions, provides information about government services, and understands the bilingual context that HK residents live in.
The $200 Million Behind It
HKGAI is funded by a $200 million donation from the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Sino Group. This is private philanthropic funding, not government grants — which gives the project unusual independence and speed.
The donation is one of the largest single investments in AI research in Hong Kong's history. It signals that the private sector sees HK AI as worth betting on, not just the government.
The Application Ecosystem
Beyond HKChat, HKGAI has built a portfolio of specialized applications:
LexiHK — Legal AI for Hong Kong's legal system. Understands local statutes, case law, and legal terminology in both English and Chinese. Given that HK is one of Asia's largest legal markets, this has real commercial potential.
HKPilot — A writing assistant tuned for Hong Kong English and Chinese writing conventions.
HKMeeting — Meeting transcription that handles the code-switching between English and Cantonese that defines most HK business meetings.
HKEcoLink — Environmental monitoring and analysis for Hong Kong's specific ecological context.
Hum2Song — Music generation. Because why not.
Why This Matters
HKGAI represents something important: a city taking AI sovereignty seriously. Rather than depending entirely on US companies (who block you) or Chinese companies (who may not optimize for HK specifically), Hong Kong is building its own AI capability.
The model is built on open-source foundations (DeepSeek), developed by local universities, funded by local philanthropy, and designed for local needs. It's the most concrete expression of HK's AI ambitions — not a roadmap or a policy paper, but a working model and a public chatbot.
Sources
- -HKChat Attracts 90,000 Users — SCMP
- -HKUST Leads HKGAI Development — China Daily
- -Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre — HKGAI
- -Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation Donates for AI — HK Gov
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