HSBC veteran banker Peter Wong urges Hong Kong's youth to be wary of generative AI as technology can create uncertainty

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is adding uncertainty to an already uncertain world, but Hong Kong can cope with the challenges by leveraging its hub status and acting as a gateway to China, according to veteran HSBC banker Peter Wong Tung-shun.

"The younger generation today has access to a lot more information than we had in my day," Wong said in City Business Magazine, a biannual publication of City University, of which he is chairman of the international advisory board. "The world is very uncertain. With generative AI, quantum computing, everything is going to go faster and faster."

The main challenge for students is to make sure the information is genuine and use that information judiciously, he added.

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Unlike traditional AI, which is typically used for analysing data, generative AI can be trained to produce different types of content, including text, imagery and audio. Many business leaders, including Elon Musk, have advocated caution because of the technology's potential dangers.

Wong, 72, the non-executive Asia-Pacific chairman of Hong Kong's largest bank, believes the city can cope with the challenges of a fast-changing world, "as the people of Hong Kong know how to navigate".

"I have been in banking for 42 years now, in those years I have gone through 12 crises," he said. "May it be pandemic, may it be caused by politics, or may it be economics. But every time, Hong Kong bounced back very strongly."

The key to the city's future success will depend on whether it can provide the international network for China, Wong said.

"Hong Kong is an international centre. Hong Kong flourishes because of the fact that we have international communities; we have French, British, Canadians, Indians, and so forth," he said.

The Hong Kong government's promotional efforts in the Middle East are paying off, he said, pointing to growing ties with countries like Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month, Saudi Tadawul Group, the Gulf nation's bourse operator, organised its first international Capital Markets Forum in Hong Kong. The flagship event brought together some 300 investors and 650 delegates from the government, finance and business communities.

Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia are also working on an exchange traded fund (ETF) that will track the benchmark Hang Seng Index, the city's deputy financial secretary, Michael Wong Wai-lun, said at the conference.

Once ready, the ETF will be listed on the Tadawul exchange in Riyadh, allowing Saudi investors to trade Hong Kong stocks. This comes after the listing of the CSOP Saudi Arabia ETF in Hong Kong in November, which tracks 56 Gulf stocks, including the world's biggest company, Saudi Aramco.

"Hong Kong can only be of value to China if Hong Kong is in the international space, bringing all the best products, services and practices. And then China can use Hong Kong as a pilot or a gateway to understand the world," HSBC's Wong said.

Technology and environment, social and governance (ESG) will offer some of the biggest opportunities for Hong Kong's youth in future.

From the banking industry's point of view, ESG offers big opportunities for bankers as they can advise and finance companies to invest in equipment and other business transformation to cut down energy and waste to achieve carbon neutrality.

Wong said Hong Kong can also be a fundraising hub for companies to raise green bonds or other investment vehicles to finance their environmentally friendly projects.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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