Why we asked for it
We teach AI to primary students in schools that had no AI curriculum and no budget to build one. The gap was not interest — the children were quick — it was access. So our submissions argued the same point each year: AI literacy funded only through schools and employers will reach the households that already have it, and miss the ones that don't. Public money had to be spent on the people at the back of the queue, not the front.
What we submitted
In August 2025 we put that argument to the Policy Address consultation, and made it again in our Budget feedback: fund AI literacy directly for the people least likely to encounter it — children in under-resourced schools, their parents, and older residents — instead of routing it through institutions that would reach them last. We asked for public funding attached to that group specifically, rather than a general commitment to AI skills.
What it means, and what it doesn't
The allocation is a start, not a settlement. The government has described HK$50 million as an initial figure and the 50,000-participant target as a baseline shaped by current resources; officials have said more funding may follow if demand is there. Fifty thousand people is a small fraction of Hong Kong. Our position for the next cycle is that the demand exists and the funding should follow it, and we intend to say so in our submission to the First Five-Year Plan.