Hong Kong to look at laws globally for best way to handle AI porn case: John Lee

Hong Kong’s leader has pledged to examine regulations in other jurisdictions and look for “best practices” to see what the city should do in the case of a university student accused of using AI to generate pornographic images of classmates and other women.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday also called on institutions to deal with students’ misconduct seriously, saying any illegal acts should be reported to law enforcement agencies as well.

Lee was responding to a case at the University of Hong Kong, in which a law student was accused of using AI to generate explicit images of classmates and other women, but only received a warning from the institution when he was found out.

Three of the victims made public their accusations against the student referred to as “X” in social media posts on Saturday as they alleged the university had not done enough to hold the man accountable. The trio said they had no plans to report the incident to police, as they had learned that “such acts had not been regulated by the local criminal framework”.

Weighing in on the case on Tuesday, Lee pointed to current legislation such as the Crimes Ordinance, which covered internet activities and countered threats to publish intimate images without consent and access to a computer with dishonest content.

But he conceded that AI was an emerging technology that was evolving “very rapidly”, with new capabilities and developments appearing in a very short period of time.

“The government will closely monitor the situation regarding the fast development and application of AI, examine global regulatory trends, and conduct in-depth research into international best practices to see what we should do in regard to the case,” Lee said before his weekly meeting with the government’s top decision-making Executive Council.