Prof. Anne Cheung and her team won HKU Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award 2022

Professor Anne Cheung from the Department of Law and her team members – Professor Benjamin C.M. Kao and Professor Reynold Cheng from the Department of Computer Science, Mr Eric Cheung and Mr Michael M.K. Cheung from the Department of Law, and Dr Felix Chan from the Department of Professional Legal Education, won the HKU Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award 2022 for the Faculty of Law with an application titled ‘HKU AI Lawyer: Sentencing Predictor for Drug Trafficking‘.  The award recognizes the impact of the HKU AI Lawyer Sentencing Predictor for Drug Trafficking which was developed in 2021 with the HKU Interdisciplinary Knowledge Exchange Project Fund.

Professor Cheung and her team developed the first AI-assisted Sentencing Predictor for drug trafficking in Hong Kong. They aimed to design a reliable AI-powered sentencing predictor for layman and professionals (social workers and lawyers) to be familiar with sentencing guidelines and consequences, and to provide a convenient tool for lawyers to cross-check legal information and cases. More than 5,100 users had been benefitted and 7,900 predictions were made within one year (19 May 2021 to 10 May 2022).

HKU AI Lawyer Sentencing Predictor is available at https://www.lawtech.hk/ai-sentencing-predictor/.

The Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Awards were introduced in 2011 to recognise each Faculty’s outstanding KE accomplishment that has made demonstrable economic, social or cultural impacts to benefit the community, business/industry, or partner organisations.  The selection criteria include quality of the underpinning research and the impact with support of evidence, effectiveness of the engagement process with the community or partner organisations, and demonstration of cross- and multi-disciplinary impacts.