HKGAGC: 'AI cannot be governed by greed'
Yi Ma, chair professor in AI at HKU, told the HKGAGC2026 conference that 'AI cannot be governed by greed and ignorance about the technology,' speaking to over 400 attendees and 38 speakers. The remark was shared as a framing comment from the conference community on global AI governance discussions. (x.com; x.com)
A Hong Kong conference on artificial intelligence governance put one line at the center of its closing message: Yi Ma said the technology cannot be governed by “greed and ignorance.” (x.com) Ma is a chair professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Hong Kong and director of its School of Computing and Data Science. He appeared on the programme for the Hong Kong Global AI Governance Conference on April 10, 2026, moderating the opening fireside chat with SenseTime chief executive Li Xu. (ai.hku.hk; ideas.hku.hk) The University of Hong Kong said the conference ran on April 10 and 11 at Rayson Huang Theatre and was organized under its Interdisciplinary Dynamics, Ethics, AI and Society initiative. The event brought together scholars, policymakers and industry leaders to discuss explainability, accountability and regulation. (hku.hk) The conference website said its aim was to widen artificial intelligence policy debates beyond a United States-China frame. Its organizers wrote that 80 percent of the world’s population lives outside those two countries and argued that governance debates often leave those voices out. (ideas.hku.hk) That framing places Ma’s remark inside a broader fight over who writes the rules for artificial intelligence as governments move from principles to enforcement. The European Union says its Artificial Intelligence Act entered into force on August 1, 2024, with banned practices and artificial intelligence literacy duties applying from February 2, 2025, and the rest of the law phasing in through August 2, 2026. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) Other international bodies have been building softer or broader rulebooks. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development updated its Artificial Intelligence Principles in May 2024, and the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on March 21, 2024 calling for “safe, secure and trustworthy” artificial intelligence systems. (oecd.ai; news.un.org) A separate treaty track is also taking shape. The Council of Europe says it adopted the first legally binding international convention on artificial intelligence, focused on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and opened it to countries beyond Europe. (coe.int) The Hong Kong programme reflected that mix of technical, legal and political questions. Panels covered education, philosophy, law, regulation, public governance and global cooperation, with speakers from the University of Hong Kong, Harvard, Tsinghua, the University of Southern California, INSEAD and SenseTime. (ideas.hku.hk; ideas.hku.hk) Ma’s line landed as a compact version of the conference’s larger pitch: artificial intelligence governance should be informed by how the systems work, who they affect and which countries get a seat at the table. (x.com; ideas.hku.hk)
