The research will first focus on “tech for resilience”, with an emphasis on the use of AI and data science to understand sources of community resilience to a variety of threats to social cohesion, public health, and climate preparedness.
Proposed research topics under this series include social problems and AI-powered solutions, AI and collaborative platforms, and institutional choice in information commons.
Tentative research topics are: Algorithm bureaucracy; AI and public accountability; administrative ethics in the digital world.
HKU’s Centre for Civil Society and Governance and Meta will co-host an annual “Tech for Good” roundtable, which will focus on issues addressed by the white papers published each year.
A platform for cultivating partnerships with key actors at the intersection of public policy, tech, and philanthropy will be established. The “Tech for Good” roundtable and the University’s Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Social Sciences in the field of Sustainability Leadership and Governance (MSLG) program lectures will be the main vehicles for the initiative.
An action research focusing on AI in commoning is expected to be launched in 2022. The project will be concerned with the issue of institutional compatibility in AI development, and supported by direct access to commoning initiatives in Hong Kong and potentially other locations in Asia Pacific. The aim is to promote new thinking about institutional innovation that will help transform the hard functionalities of AI into socially embedded applications, enhance commoning experiences and outcomes, and showcase AI-powered commoning as a new approach to governance.
The University also appreciates Meta’s generous support in terms of continuous research grants to allow scholars of HKU and other academic institutions in the Asia Pacific region to work on high-quality research papers in relevant fields. HKU and Meta have jointly developed the AI & Ethics series. You can find more information about the awardees and their research topics here.
HKU and Meta are now planning a new series of research grants to call for paper submissions in the field of AR/VR.