Published: 2024-11-25

A newly established research hub at HKBU’s School of Communication will host research on the adoption of AI technologies in different fields to understand how they can be used to solve real world problems, and to diagnose potential ethical concerns. The AI Media Centre hopes to be at the forefront of exploring the transformative potentials as well as risks of artificial intelligence across multiple domains.

The centre is fitted with eight research labs headed by a crop of expert scholars whose works are dedicated to advancing the intersection of artificial intelligence and media and navigating transdisciplinary collaborations that integrate insights from diverse fields to generate results of high social impact. Researchers in the centre are currently engaging in several fascinating projects that seek to explore how AI-driven solutions can be used to tackle critical social challenges.

AI in Politics and Governance: Trends in the 2024 U.S. Elections

The recently concluded presidential election in the United States has left the country and observers across the world even more politically, economically, and socially polarised. As narratives diverge about the voting process and the events leading to the election, post-election grievances and conspiracies also surge about the reasons for the election outcome which has the potential of instigating domestic extremism against perceived political adversaries. How can these grievances be tracked and monitored using AI algorithm?

Bu Zhong, Dean of School of Communication and Director of the AI Media Centre and Jolie Shi, Associate Professor, Interactive Media Department and Co-Director of the centre propose an exploration of this issue in a collaborative project tracking the trends of public grievances about the U.S. elections. By utilising the superior functionalities of Politics-Aware Cross-Domain Recommendations (PaCronn), Zhong and Shi aim to enhance the performance of cross domain recommendations in order to accurately trace the path of political discordance and give precise predictions.

Aside from the grievances evoked by the U.S. elections, political misinformation about the elections were equally rife. Enabled by new generative AI tools, people were able to create and share fake videos, images, and false narratives to sway public perceptions about the candidates. Although news and media literacy have predictably been the point of focus when discussing mis/disinformation, Yanjing Lu, research post-graduate student in the School of Communication, argue that attention should now shift to AI literacy given the inadvertent application of these advanced technologies in generating fallacious media content.

Lu proposes a model to investigate how people’s cognitive abilities affect their acceptance of political misinformation, while exploring the moderating role of AI literacy and AI imaginaries in the context of the 2024 US election. She aims to study this phenomenon by conducting an experiment that will involve residents from three US swing states (Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Michigan).

AI in Healthcare: Communication Technologies and Doctor-Patient Relationship

The application of AI in healthcare has been truly remarkable. Enabling more accurate diagnosis, aiding more personalised treatment, facilitating more efficient patient monitoring, and enhancing patient-physician relationship are only some of its broad and far-reaching potentials. Yuner Zhu, Research Assistant Professor and Liang Lan, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Interactive Media are interested in investigating the impact of advanced AI tools on doctor-patient relationship within the context of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic, incurable but controllable disease that causes intense abdominal pain and diarrhea, and is capable of depleting the overall physical, emotional, social, and mental health of its patients. IBD is a rare ailment that typically affects people between the ages of 15 and 35. The last few decades have seen an increase in the prevalence of IBD in Asia, with Hong Kong and Macau among the top three regions with the highest incidences. Experts attribute this spike in cases to low public awareness of the disease and misdiagnosis by physicians.

Zhu and Lan’s IBD research project bridges communication studies and clinical research to explore the current management of IBD in a patient-doctor setting. Their research explores two key areas: first, how IBD physicians utilize these technologies to enhance efficiency and streamline their daily work; and second, how patients perceive and respond to physicians’ adoption of such technologies. The central goal of this project is to identify opportunities for developing mediated interventions to alleviate the increasing tension often observed in doctor-patient interactions surrounding IBD management. As an initial step of this research, Zhu and Lan are currently conducting a comprehensive review of relevant journal publications from scholars in China and the United States, with a particular emphasis on collaborative research efforts between the two nations.

AI in Aging: Digitizing Senior Healthcare

The global increase in the elderly population has heightened the demand for elderly care, especially in densely populated cities like Hong Kong. Elderly individuals living in care facilities often face challenges such as loneliness and social isolation, which negatively impact their physical and mental well-being. Artificial intelligence-assisted media tools offer a new opportunity to enhance and enrich the quality of life of the elderly.

Lola Xie, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, and her research team are interested in exploring the adoption and utilization of interactive technology in the health management of the elderly, as well as investigating its implications on their mental, social, and spiritual well-being. The team seeks to develop an interactive digital programme for seniors in Hong Kong that will guide them through a series of physical and spiritual exercises. The programme features therapeutic haptics technology, aiming to help the elderly perform a series of gestures in sync with meditation music and visual cues through mobile devices.

Once the program is developed, Xie and her team will work with Kwong Yum Care Home and other senior care facilities in Hong Kong to recruit at least 100 seniors to participate in a five-month trial. This groundbreaking programme represents the first of its kind in Hong Kong. Its successful launch will not only enhance theoretical understanding of interactive therapeutic technology in the context of senior care but also produce a practical prototype.

AI in Journalism: Integration of AI Technologies in Newsroom

Transformative technological innovations have significantly impacted many industries, including professional journalism. Various AI-powered tools are revolutionizing how news is gathered, produced, disseminated, and consumed. News organisations across the world are competing to integrate AI technologies in newsroom practices, in order to increase the efficiency and productivity and free up journalists for more creative work.

In spite of all the potential benefits, Nick Zhang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and the Director of AI-Journalism lab at AI Media Centre, observes that the adoption of AI technologies in newsrooms remains uneven across many nations and regions, particularly among local and small-sized news organizations. He speculates that this is not solely a technical development issue but is related to factors of cultural resistance, AI literacy, ethnical concerns, institutional support and resources for research and development.

To understand this phenomenon better and to help the local news media address their shortcomings within Hong Kong journalism landscape, Zhang seeks to first conduct a multi-level analysis to explore why AI integration in local newsroom remain low, disorganised and fragmented. A current project of AI-Journalism Lab aims to evaluate the effectiveness, challenges, and feasible practices of AI integration in local context. Zhang and his research team will investigate the hurdles faced by local journalists in Hong Kong and explore sustainable collaboration model among research, academic and industry sectors.

These proposed and on-going research projects demonstrate the commitment of the School of Communication and AI Media Centre to making a positive impact by providing significant insights and advancements in media practices and communication research.