Media

Our Digital Selves

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming deeply embedded into the functioning of our daily lives, often for the better but also with unknown consequences. HKU scholars have been looking at these issues from multiple perspectives, as shown in the examples on these pages – revealing why it is urgently important to improve our ability to communicate with AI; the potential impact on concepts of the self from digitisation; ...

AI and the Language Barrier

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly making important decisions about our lives. But does AI understand terms like ‘creditworthiness’ and ‘terrorist threat’ the same way humans do? Chair Professor of Philosophy Herman Cappelen argues it is time for more dialogue and effort across disciplines to address this important issue.

The ‘Digitalised Self’

The effects of digitalisation on the human mind and sense of self are only starting to be explored. Dr Chan Kai-tai is among those pondering the potential impact.

Press for Success

The way we physically interact with technology can influence our choices and even our behaviour.

Reading Our Bodies

Researchers are not far from the day when they can produce a small desktop device that can read our biochemical signals and tell us the state of our physical and even mental health within minutes. Dr Lin Haisong is among those making advances in the field.

Art for Our Sake

Artists are playing with new technologies to reveal their darker uses in surveillance, identity and the monetisation of art, and also having a little fun with them. Dr Monica Lee Steinberg explains.

Living Long, Despite the Odds

HKU researchers have revealed why Hong Kong has the longest life expectancy in the world: unlike most other places, it has attained a unique combination of economic development and successful tobacco control. Making the most of those extra years is another matter.

Be Prepared

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, deposits into US banks increased from US$13 trillion in January 2020 to US$16 trillion by the end of the year, prompting business researchers to investigate how depositors were responding to the crisis and why.

Out of the Blue

Marine ecosystems serve the critical environmental function of sequestering and storing blue carbon from the oceans and atmosphere, an essential tool in the fight against climate change. A multidisciplinary project is developing new ways to protect Hong Kong’s precious marine environment using 3D printing.

Consuming Interests

A study reveals that digital discourse about and involving food – including mukbang (livestreamed eating) and everyday vlogging – serves as a means of realising the sociocultural values of eating together and eating well.

In the Clover

Materials engineers have taken inspiration from nature to devise origami-like microfluidic devices that can bend and fold in response to the environment, opening up a new space for exploring the potential and application of microfluidics.

Fractured Vision

A massive international study of hip fracture – one of the most common ailments affecting the elderly – has provided both a better understanding of the impact of demographic variation on osteoporosis and support for strategic policymaking in the management of ageing populations.

The Greedy Gecko Trade

Tokay geckos are in seeming abundance in Asia, but high-volume trade in the species suggests there could be threats on the horizon. HKU scientists have been gathering evidence.

The Sad Place

Professor Tatia Mei-chun Lee and her team have identified areas in the brain highly related to the intensity of depressive symptoms and shown that greater connectivity in these areas is associated with more intense depressive symptoms.