HKU Law and Technology Centre launched HKU AI Lawyer: Sentencing Predictor for Drug Trafficking

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning bring disruptive changes to legal practice. AI can be used to draw insights from past judicial decisions to predict future outcomes. In the criminal justice system, one essential aspect is sentencing. Much attention has been placed on how AI informs decisions about sentencing and how to use AI to assist people to obtain and make use of sentencing information.

Professor Anne Cheung of the Faculty of Law and Professor Ben Kao of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hong Kong and their research team have developed a Stage-1 model of HKU AI Lawyer - an AI-assisted sentencing predictor for the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs in Hong Kong. The predictor is based on an innovative combination of legal domain knowledge and machine learning techniques. Users only need to provide relevant information through responding to four simple questions, and the predictor will generate an estimated term of imprisonment. Another useful feature of the predictor is that it will at the same time show the links to court decisions which are most relevant to the given facts. The sentencing predictor is a pragmatic tool for professionals including lawyers, social workers and teachers. It also serves to inform the public of likely legal consequences of committing drug trafficking offences.

A workshop was held on May 18 (Tuesday) to introduce the background of HKU AI Lawyer, with a demonstration of how to use the sentencing predictor, to lawyers, social workers and members of the community. Mr. Chan Man Ho, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, also shared his experience.

Media representatives were cordially invited to attend the workshop, with details as follows:

Date: May 18, 2021 (Tuesday)

Time: 2:00 – 3:15pm

Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU (map)

Language: Cantonese

Speakers:

Professor Anne Cheung

Co-Director, Law and Technology Centre

Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, HKU

Professor Ben Kao

Co-Director, Law and Technology Centre

Professor, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, HKU

Mr. Michael Cheung

Research Officer

Law and Technology Centre, Faculty of Law, HKU

Mr. Chan Man Ho

Deputy Director

The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups

** The workshop was simultaneously aired through Zoom:

Link: https://hku.zoom.us/j/96186396394

Meeting ID: 961 8639 6394

For media enquiries, please contact:

Ms. Grace Chan, Secretary, Law and Technology Centre, Faculty of Law, HKU (Tel: 3917-4727; Email: mcgrace@hku.hk)

Media Coverage

"Hong Kong drug offenders get clearer view of options as new computer program scans thousands of cases to determine likely sentences", SCMP, 19 May 2021.  For other media coverage, see the list on the Law and Technology Cente webpage.

Puja Kapai in the News (SCMP)

"'The future of Hong Kong is not ours': Minority groups feel shut out of one of Asia's richest cities"

R Blundy & C Leung
South China Morning Post
19 November 2016

Lifelong Hongkonger Prem Chandr Tamang was shocked to watch television footage of police firing shots at a Nepali gang attacking another Nepali in Yau Ma Tei on October 2 this year.

     The 44-year-old Nepali company director, whose engineering construction business is based just two blocks away from where the machete attack took place, has also been a victim of Nepali gangs in the last two years.

     On one occasion, they broke into his office, demanded he hand over HK$100,000 and slashed his neck – an injury that left him struggling to eat for 14 months. In a separate terrifying attack in March this year, they cornered him at home, hitting him across the head as he tried to protect his one-year-old son...

     Puja Kapai, director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong, said the neglect of Nepalis and Pakistanis needed to be urgently addressed by the government.

     “It is very sad,” she said. “Young men and women are being recruited into these gangs because they are being exploited by the sense of loss within their community. They are being lost to the other side.”.. Click here to read the full article.

"Window-cleaning ban for Hong Kong's domestic helpers will not keep them safe, campaigners say"

Rachel Blundy

South China Morning Post

19 November 2016

A recent ban on cleaning high-rise windows is not sufficient to protect Hong Kong’s domestic workers from exploitation, campaigners argue after a shocking photograph recently emerged of a helper cleaning a window at a 15th-floor apartment in the Mid-Levels.

     The government this week revealed details of a new clause to be added to all domestic helper employment contracts, prohibiting them from cleaning external windows above the ground floor unless the window is fitted with a secure grille.

     The ban, proposed by the Philippines Consulate, was initially delayed for one month to allow Hong Kong lawmakers more time to establish the specific wording of the new clause...

     Puja Kapai, director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong, agreed that the ban did not properly address the lack of restrictions on a domestic helper’s duties and working hours. “It is a band-aid approach,” she said... Click here to read the full article.

"Hong Kong's lack of rehabilitation services leave minority drug addicts with nowhere to turn"

L Chan & S Cheah

South China Morning Post

19 November 2016

Thapa was only 16 when he first started abusing ‘brown sugar’ - an adulterated form of heroin - in Nepal.

     He came to Hong Kong in 2004 to reunite with family, but pressured by peers and feeling disenfranchised by his experience as a member of an ethnic minority in the city, Thapa turned to heroin. He was only 18.

     “Before, I had no meaning to my life,” he said. Thapa’s story is not unique in the Nepalese community. Drug abuse among ethnic minorities in the city has been on the rise since 2005.

     Statistics show drug use has risen from 1.4 per cent to 3.6 per cent in the Nepalese community, compared to a rise from 0.4 per cent for other South Asians to 2.6 per cent in this year’s first quarter...

     The South Asian population is predominantly Buddhist, Hindu

or Muslim; yet nearly all of the city’s rehab services are Christian-based.

     This means religion is a “first-stage barrier” that ethnic minorities face when seeking treatment, according to Puja Kapai, law professor at Hong Kong University, who has published extensive research on the status of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong... Click here to read the full article.

"Hong Kong charity reaches out to ethnic minorities who face barriers to health care"

Rachel Blundy

South China Morning Post

22 November 2016

Ethnic minorities in Hong Kong are increasingly developing preventable chronic health problems but face significant barriers to accessing health care, a charity has warned.

      South Asians in particular are facing rising levels of diabetes, obesity and heart conditions, partly because of their traditionally high-fat diets, according to Health in Action.

      The humanitarian organisation will receive almost HK$930,000 from Operation Santa Claus, the annual fundraiser organised by the South China Morning Post and RTHK, for a new health care programme targeted at ethnic minorities...

     The government has previously been criticised for failing to support ethnic minorities seeking health care.

      Writing in her 2015 research paper Status of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong 1997-2014, Puja Kapai, director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Kong Kong, said the “language barrier” was the primary hurdle faced by ethnic minorities.

      “Whilst the population of ethnic minorities continues to grow in Hong Kong, the government has paid insufficient attention to the problems faced by ethnic minorities in terms of equal accessibility to health care services,” she wrote... Click here to read the full article.