In a post on his social media platform today, ex-financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah claimed that the biggest obstacle to the city's innovation and technology development lies in its education system.

"DSE(Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, the city's high school degree award examinations) is the shackles that hinder innovation and creativity in the young generation and will make Hong Kong be 'seriously left behind by the world'," he said.

Tsang added the current education system forced students to follow merely the examination curriculum and failed to encourage an open mindset.

"I even have a bold idea...letting high school students study in university as long as they are qualified, and if they are not capable enough, they have to quit from the university," Tsang said, noting "it will provide young generation more room not to be restricted by the examination curriculum".

Furthermore, Tsang called it "an unnecessary move" for some universities to ban students from using AI-generating learning tools.

"It's just like prohibiting students from using calculators and asking them to use pen and paper for mathematics questions instead," he said, adding AI technology could be integrated into class as a tool.

"A teacher can still play the role of a gatekeeper to check whether the coursework handed by a student is done by an AI tool and whether a student raised his/her own ideas by in-depth analysis," Tsang said.

Last month, the University of Hong Kong became the first local university which publicly ban students from using ChatGPT or any other artificial intelligence tools for coursework, followed by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in March announced that students would not be allowed to use such AI-based tools unless they had permission from instructors.

However, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said the decision on whether to allow students to use AI tools would be granted to teaching staff, while the Education University of Hong Kong said it would "encourage" students to "make good use of AI tools".