The HK$50 million budget allocation to boost awareness of AI and its application is aimed at ensuring that the public fully grasps the opportunities the nascent technology can bring, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said on Friday. Speaking on RTHK, he said the public had to better appreciate the potential and long-term impact that artificial intelligence could bring instead of people just being content with a simplistic understanding of the technology. "The most important thing is to boost public awareness of AI. With that small amount of money – HK$50 million – it is not, of course, possible to make great inroads," Sun said. "It's mainly intended to foster awareness of AI usage. However, it should also inspire people to learn by themselves and encourage them to strive to improve their skills through applications involving the technology," he said. "Undoubtedly, AI development brings society a lot of opportunities, but we are also facing many challenges." Society has to plan ahead and prepare early, Sun said, expressing hope the public would work together with the government to explore how AI could foster development on a more comprehensive scale. If needed, Sun said, more money will be poured in. He also said HK$10 billion would be injected into moves to accelerate development of the Hetao Hong Kong Park. Sun said at least 70 percent of that amount would be allocated to public-private partnerships for the park's remaining land parcels under the first development phase and that he hoped the HK$10 billion fund would reap at least HK$30 billion in investments from the market. He described it as "a happy problem" if the initial amount was used up within a short period of time, as this meant that firms had participated in the development. The government, he added, would also consider injecting more funds if that is the case. Edited by Tony Sabine