AI Safety Hong Kong (AISHK)

Hong Kong

As Hong Kong’s first dedicated AI safety organisation, AI Safety Hong Kong develops local capacity through research, training, convening, and policy engagement.

Endorsed by

Gavin

Ryan

As Hong Kong’s first dedicated AI safety organisation, AI Safety Hong Kong develops local capacity through research, training, convening, and policy engagement.

Endorsed by

Gavin

Ryan

Project Details

Description
AI Safety Hong Kong (AISHK) is Hong Kong's first (and so far, only) dedicated AI Safety fieldbuilding organisation.

Although there are growing concerns in Hong Kong around navigating increasingly advanced AI systems, most of the government's efforts seem dedicated towards nurturing the capabilities race. Awareness about frontier AI risks seems quite neglected, and the AI safety ecosystem has very little presence in Hong Kong, despite its position as the financial heart of the Chinese frontier AI industry.

AISHK brings AI safety into public awareness through the following:-

Convening: we host public talks, reading groups, and socials that bring together a wide range of people (e.g.,students, researchers, technologists, lawyers, policymakers, and finance professionals, etc).
Training: we design, organise and facilitate workshops, courses and other training and educational programmes that upskill and inform a wide range of HK stakeholders on issues of AI safety & governance.
Research: we collaborate with local researchers, produce Hong Kong-relevant analyses and contribute to public policy discussions.

We began in early 2026, and have so far been operating with zero funding, with the founders investing personal time, money and resources into scaling the organization.

What we have built:-

a) Webinars
We run a monthly webinar series. So far, we have hosted Tzu Kit Chan of Atlas Computing, Anson Ho of Epoch AI, and Prof. Sijuade Animashaun of City University of Hong Kong. Our upcoming webinars for the rest of the year will include speakers affiliated with various other well-known AI Safety orgs, like Anthropic, Future of Life Institute, the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, HKU, and more.

A running list and description of webinars can be found on our Luma calendar here: https://luma.com/aishkspeakers?period=past

b) Reading groups
We run monthly in-person reading groups and socials. These are consistently oversubscribed (events routinely receive over than 60 registrations for roughly 25–30 places). These events draw a broad mix of attendees (including students, researchers, startup founders, engineers, lawyers, civil servants, finance professionals, etc). The vast majority of our first-time attendees start out unaware about AI safety as a dedicated field, and often express interest in getting more involved once they attend their first reading group.

A running list and description of our reading groups can be found on our Luma socials calendar: https://luma.com/calendar/manage/cal-5DkGqDj8Pl7e6yC?period=past

c) Training programmes
We have been appointed as logistics partner for ML4Good and TARA, two established AI safety training programmes running their first Hong Kong cohorts in 2026. We are providing local operational support and outreach for the programmes. Over time, we to introduce HK to more high-quality AI safety training, and we would like to eventually launch our own similar programmes.

d) University talent pipelines
We are seeding student-run AI Safety groups, beginning at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). We have also attracted interest from other elite HK universities. We intend to nurture these groups into a local talent pipeline for an AI safety ecosystem in Hong Kong.

e) Research and policy
We are building a research and policy programme to bring neglected frontier AI risks into Hong Kong’s public policy agenda. E.g., we are currently drafting a white paper responding to the AI-relevant parts of the Hong Kong Government’s Five Year Plan consultations.

f) Community growth
The community growth we have spearheaded in Hong Kong is our biggest success story. We are steadily building a core group of supporters across influential Hong Kong institutions and industries. Many have reached out to ask how they can contribute to AI safety. We have referred several community members to AI safety education and upskilling opportunities (e.g., certification courses and fellowships), while others have introduced us to influential stakeholders.

Our social media channels are growing organically through event attendance, without paid outreach or marketing. For example, our Substack has grown to 300+ subscribers and has a 55% open rate, purely on the basis of our reading groups and webinars.

Who's Involved:
View our team page here: https://www.aisafetyhk.org/who-we-are
Concrete output:
Funding will support our operations and growth over the next year, allowing us to build on the strong early momentum we have achieved through self-funded efforts.

Theory of Impact

China is one of the world’s two frontier AI powers. Yet what we commonly term as the "AI safety movement" has little meaningful connection to Chinese AI researchers, labs, and other relevant AI governance institutions.

Although organizations like Concordia AI and SAIF doing good work to build bridges between the Chinese and US AI ecosystems and develop global norms of AI safety, there is very little direct fieldbuilding work for AI safety within the Chinese industry.

There can be no AI safety if the global AI safety ecosystem remains concentrated around US-led, Western AI industries.

Although Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Shanghai host more of China’s leading AI labs and technical talent, HK is the highest impact leverage point to introduce AI safety to the Chinese AI industry as a whole. It is the designated financial centre through which Chinese AI companies pursue global IPOs and international expansion, bringing them into contact with global markets, professional services, commercial networks, and institutions.

HK has served as China’s bridge to the rest of the world for a long time. The HK govt. is seeking to deepen this role under its current Five Year Plan by developing international organisations and institutions for international cooperation. AI safety & governance should be part of that project. We at AISHK are actively building up influential local voices on AI safety in the financial, commercial, regulatory, and policy networks that shape how Chinese AI companies engage with the world.

People

Abeer Sharma

Team Member

Funding Details

Start Date: Feb 1, 2026
End Date: -
Expected Duration: -
Funding Raised to Date: -
Annual Budget: -
Monthly Burn Rate: -
Current Runway: -
Funding Goal: -
Funding Stage: -
Fiscal Sponsor: Effective Altruism Hong Kong

Track Record

Please refer to project description above

Grants Received– no grants recorded

Add grant

Funding Asks

grantmaking.ai Launch Round

Applied

AI Safety Hong Kong fieldbuilds AI safety in Hong Kong by convening events, running reading groups and webinars, supporting training cohorts, seeding university groups, and producing local research/policy work.

Minimum

$10,000

Ideal

$20,000

What this ask is

Description
AI Safety Hong Kong (AISHK) is Hong Kong's first (and so far, only) dedicated AI Safety fieldbuilding organisation.

Although there are growing concerns in Hong Kong around navigating increasingly advanced AI systems, most of the government's efforts seem dedicated towards nurturing the capabilities race. Awareness about frontier AI risks seems quite neglected, and the AI safety ecosystem has very little presence in Hong Kong, despite its position as the financial heart of the Chinese frontier AI industry.
AISHK brings AI safety into public awareness through three kinds of work:-

Convening: we host public talks, reading groups, and socials that bring together students, researchers, technologists, lawyers, policymakers, and finance professionals.
Training: we design, organise and facilitate workshops, courses and other training and educational programmes that upskill and inform a wide range of HK stakeholders on issues of AI safety & governance.
Research: we collaborate with local researchers, produce Hong Kong-relevant analyses and contribute to public policy discussions.

We began in early 2026, and have so far been operating with zero funding, with the founders investing personal time, money and resources into scaling the organization.

2. What we have built:-

b) Reading groups
We run monthly in-person reading groups and socials. These have consistently been oversubscribed (events routinely receive over than 60 registrations for roughly 25–30 places). These events have drawn an unusually broad mix of attendees, including students, researchers, startup founders, engineers, lawyers, civil servants, and finance professionals. The vast majority of our first-time attendees start out unaware about AI safety as a dedicated field, and often express interest in getting more involved once they attend their first reading group.

A running list and description of our reading groups can be found on our Luma socials calendar: https://luma.com/calendar/manage/cal-5DkGqDj8Pl7e6yC?period=past

c) Training programmes
We have been appointed as logistics partner for ML4Good and TARA, two established AI safety training programmes expected to run their first Hong Kong cohorts in 2026. We are providing local operational support and outreach for the programmes. Over time, we aim to make Hong Kong a place where more high-quality AI-safety training can take place and would like to eventually launch our own programmes.

d) University talent pipelines
We are seeding student-run AI Safety groups, beginning at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and have attracted interest from groups at other elite Hong Kong universities. We intend to nurture these groups into a local talent pipeline for an AI safety ecosystem in Hong Kong.

e) Research and policy
We are building a research and policy programme to bring neglected frontier AI risks into Hong Kong’s public and institutional discussion. E.g., we are currently drafting a white paper responding to the AI-relevant parts of the Hong Kong Government’s Five Year Plan consultations.

Who's Involved:
View our team page here: https://www.aisafetyhk.org/who-we-are
Concrete output:
Funding will support our operations and growth over the next year, allowing us to build on the strong early momentum we have achieved through self-funded volunteer efforts.

Theory of impact

Although organizations like Concordia AI and SAIF doing meaningful work to build bridges between the Chinese and US AI ecosystems and develop global norms of AI safety, there is very little direct fieldbuilding work for AI safety within the Chinese industry.

There can be no AI safety if the global AI safety ecosystem remains concentrated around US-led, Western AI industries.

Although Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Shanghai host more of China’s leading AI labs and technical talent, Hong Kong is the highest impact leverage point to introduce AI safety to the Chinese AI industry as a whole. It is the designated financial centre through which Chinese AI companies pursue global IPOs and international expansion, bringing them into contact with global markets, professional services, commercial networks, and institutions.

Hong Kong has served as China’s bridge to the rest of the world for a long time. The Hong Kong government is seeking to deepen this role under its current Five Year Plan by developing international organisations and institutions for international cooperation. AI safety should be part of that project. We at AISHK are actively building up influential local voices on AI safety in the financial, commercial, regulatory, and policy networks that shape how Chinese AI companies engage with the world.

Hong Kong also provides the clearest route into the Chinese Greater Bay Area (GBA). A growing number of members in our community already cross the border from Shenzhen to attend our events. The HK government's Five Year Plan seeks to make HK the leader of the GBA.

Right now, we at AISHK are starting by building an active community through research, training, convening, and advocacy. However, our long term goal is to build a permanent AI safety hub and ecosystem in Hong Kong, thoroughly integrated into the wider Chinese AI industry, where people can build careers, launch institutions, undertake research programmes, and engage in policy work focused on addressing catastrophic and existential risks from frontier AI systems.

How the money will be spent

Link to spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZNY_fHvuoZqkmfYcdn8p6wKclruwb62mPjPRafhSS0Y/edit?usp=sharing

Discussion

AAbeer SharmaEndorsement13d

I can assure you we're doing great work. ^_^

Olin Thakur12d

I think this is an interesting project. Hope you are able to secure grants to continue and expand your work. Good luck, Abeer and the team.

AAbeer Sharma12d

Thank you for your support, Olin!

Genevieve SheaEndorsement12d

Great to see AI safety fieldbuilding taking root in Hong Kong. Geographic diversity is still a major gap in the ecosystem, and initiatives like this help broaden both the perspectives and institutions working on these challenges. Wishing you the best with it.

AAbeer Sharma12d

I appreciate the kind words, Genevieve!

Pim KangEndorsement12d

This work is incredibly important, especially in a strategically significant region like Hong Kong. Meaningful global coordination is difficult when AI safety capacity remains underdeveloped across much of Asia. China is one of the two central actors in the AI race, yet many of us have limited visibility into developments there and relatively few channels for engagement and impact. Hong Kong can serve as an important bridge in that landscape, so thank you for taking on this work. I strongly support this project and the role it can play in strengthening AI safety efforts in the region.

AAbeer Sharma12d

Thank you so much for the endorsement and your support, Pim!

AAlexandra M.12d(edited)

I've been joining AISHK's webinars over the past few months, and I've genuinely enjoyed them. The conversations are thoughtful, practical, and refreshingly different from many of the AI governance discussions we see in the West.

One thing I particularly value is that AISHK brings voices and perspectives into the conversation that often don't get enough attention. If we're serious about AI safety, we can't build it from one part of the world alone. We need people from different legal systems, cultures, and technical backgrounds working together.

To me, AISHK is a positive step towards stronger collaboration between Europe, the US, China, and the wider Asia-Pacific region. Those relationships are going to become increasingly important as AI continues to evolve.

We also need to invest in developing more AI safety talent in this part of the world. The challenges we're trying to solve are global, and the next generation of AI safety experts should be too.

I'm excited to see what AISHK builds over the coming years and I'm happy to support the work they're doing.

AAbeer Sharma12d

Thank you very much for all your encouragement and support, Alexandra!

Karolina GruzelEndorsement11d

I met Abeer at EA London, and he made a great impression. What he has accomplished in such a short time, despite seemingly limited resources, is amazing. AI Safety Hong Kong clearly addresses an important gap and does so in a highly cost-effective way.

AAbeer Sharma10d

Thanks a lot for your support, Karolina!

MMelody ShumEndorsement10d(edited)

Hong Kong is a great gateway for learning about Chinese AI development, which is not always accessible by other parts of the world. Training AI safety talent in Hong Kong ensures the development of a robust AI safety ecosystem that could evaluate and address regional specific challenges. This requires a type of geopolitical awareness and set of connections unique to Hong Kong, and why AI Safety HK is in a great position to make that happen.

AAbeer Sharma9d

Thank you very much for the vote of approval, Melody!

AAya LoweEndorsement9d

This is such an important initiative. A little bit of funding will go a long way in building out the community and conversation

ZZemingEndorsement6d

Having been talked to Abeer and involved in the community of HK AI safety, Abeer has already built an influential community in HongKong. Sponsoring this project is raising the safety awareness in HongKong.

AAbeer Sharma5d

Thank you so much for your support, Zeming!

BBrian MoriartyEndorsement5d

@Abeer Sharma is pursuing a serious effort to broaden AI safety work beyond where it is mostly centered. Doing that from something of an outpost, in Hong Kong, is a worthy and necessary challenge, and admirable for taking it on. Definitely worth backing.

AAbeer Sharma4d

Thanks a lot for your encouragement, Brian!