Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said laws dedicated to the governance of artificial intelligence might not yet be in place but that did not mean there was a legal vacuum to tackle misuse of the technology.

In his Policy Address on Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee stressed that ensuring the safe use of AI is just as crucial as using it for development.

Lee laid out seven key strategies in this regard, including establishing a dedicated task force led by the Department of Justice to evaluate the need to regulate minors' social media use and their interactions with AI, as well as reviewing the legal liability for accidents caused by AI products.

The Law Reform Commission is studying whether new legislation is required to combat deepfake-generated pornographic images and deepfake-driven online scams with a view to submitting a report to the government.

Lam said on Friday the administration was deeply concerned about the potential harm that might ensue from AI misuse and pledged to expedite legislation if intervention was deemed necessary.

The justice minister stressed that existing technology-neutral laws were capable of being used to prosecute those who used technology as a tool for criminal activities.

“Say deception, the whole idea is that somebody used some sort of instrument or tool to facilitate his or her commission of deceptive conduct," he said.

"So in this context, it doesn't matter what the tool is, how primitive, how advanced, so long as you're using some sort of instrument to facilitate the commission of a crime, that would constitute criminal conduct.

“I hope that people would not be under a misapprehension that at the moment there is nothing at all to regulate the misuse of AI technology to commit criminal activities.”

Lam said the task force on minors' social media use and AI interactions would be set up as soon as possible. It will collaborate with other bureaus and departments as well as study overseas practices to formulate the most suitable approach for Hong Kong in tackling this issue.

“What I wish to emphasise is that legislative intervention is only one of the options, and definitely has to be coupled with other measures,” Lam said.


Edited by Edmond Fong