Hong Kong must wake up to the cold hard geopolitics of AI

Hong Kong's engagement with artificial intelligence (AI) is being shaped by geopolitical realities, moving beyond discussions of industrial revolutions or existential risks. The geopolitics of AI are now influencing access to tools and the conditions of their use. Recently, two major international banks in Hong Kong reportedly experienced this impact. Staff at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs had their access to Anthropic's Claude, a generative AI tool, removed from internal systems used by their Hong Kong-based teams. This suggests that international AI policy and access are directly affecting the operational capabilities of financial institutions within the city.