Hong Kong is testing out its own ChatGPT-style tool as OpenAI planned extra steps to block access

HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s government is testing the city’s own ChatGPT -style tool for its employees, with plans to eventually make it available to the public, its innovation minister said after OpenAI took extra steps to block access from the city and other unsupported regions. “Given Hong Kong’s current situation, it’s difficult for Hong Kong to get giant companies like Microsoft and Google to subsidize such projects, so the government had to start doing it,” Sun said. He also said a locally developed AI program might more accurately address local language and localized issues, but adding it would “make sense” if the final product appears to be “politically correct.” Like most foreign websites and applications, ChatGPT is technically unavailable in China because of the country’s firewall, which censors the internet for residents. In 2019, protests that started over unpopular Hong Kong legislation morphed into an anti-government movement and the greatest political challenge to Beijing’s rule since the former British colony returned to China in 1997.