Private 5G & IoT: The Power Duet Fuelling Hong Kong's Smart City Revolution

Abstract from NTT Innovation Summit’s panel discussion

“Orchestrating a New Era of Machine Interaction: The Duet of Private 5G & IoT”

30th October 2024

The data centre industry is grappling with an unprecedented challenge: how to fuel these power-hungry digital brains without overloading the power grid or harming the planet.

At the recent NTT Innovation Summit, a panel of experts convened to discuss this looming infrastructure crisis. Their consensus? The current trajectory is unsustainable, and we need a radical shift in our approach to meeting AI's energy demands.

“Instead of bringing power to this AI factory, we should bring the AI factory to the power,” says Steven So, senior vice president of data centre at NTT Com Asia, “This means building massive AI training facilities next to renewable energy sources, transforming clean energy directly into computational power, and then shipping the resulting data — not electricity — back to urban centres.”

But raw power is just one piece of the puzzle. The real magic happens in converging three critical technologies: specialized AI chips, cloud computing and next-generation data centres. This trinity drives the humanoid revolution, enabling machines to process vast amounts of data in real-time and make increasingly sophisticated decisions.

Abstract from NTT Innovation Summit’s panel discussion “Powering Humanoid Dreams: Convergence of Artificial Intelligence: Chips, Cloud, Data Centers” (30 October 2024)

Moderated by:

Calum Murray, Founder, Jabel Consulting Limited

Panellists:

Steven So, SVP Data Center, NTT Com Asia
Alan Cheung, Chief Director, Artificial Intelligence and Trust Technologies, ASTRI
William Hui, Head of Innovations, Research and Development, Manulife International Limited

Calum Murray

Founder, Jabel Consulting Limited

AI is now part of the CEO's agenda. “In the past two years, AI, particularly GenAI, has exploded — from a niche discussion topic that focused around data and data science to a business necessity that's on every CEO's agenda,” observes Calum Murray, founder of Jabel Consulting Limited.

William Hui

Head of Innovations, Research and Development, Manulife International Limited

AI will start cracking problems that have stumped humans for decades. “We have some legacy issue that has been outstanding for 66 years, and we managed to fix it with just 200k US dollars,” says William Hui, head of innovation, research and development at Manulife International Limited. His team also recently discovered their AI could understand complex medical relationships hidden in years of insurance claims data, including a surprising connection between ADHD and asthma that matched published medical research with 0.2% accuracy. “This intelligence has been with us since 2014, but we're only realizing it now,” Hui reflects.

Jolly Wong, Policy Fellow, Center of Science and Policy University of Cambridge

Private 5G and IoT have the power to transform the way we live, work and play: “I believe the age of human-machine augmentations and coexistence will further transform towards an era of seamless human-machine cooperations, or you can call it symbiosis,” says Jolly Wong, policy fellow at Centre of Science and Policy, University of Cambridge.

Phil McManus, Director of Innovations, NTT Com Asia

Understand the strategic importance of Private 5G and use it as a tool to address specific business challenges and an enabler of emerging technologies: “Every technology has its place; every technology addresses a specific business problem. Where Private 5G comes in is in helping to support areas like AI at the edge, video, robotics and autonomous vehicles. And that's where we start to see the use and adoption of the technology,” says Phil McManus, director of innovation at NTT Com Asia.

Bryan Fung, Executive Director, WSP

Automation enables human independence and better business resilience, especially when dealing with unforeseen disruptions: “The more we are able to reduce human intervention, the more we can be more independent. Whatever happens, you don't have to face a lockdown situation where you don't know how to operate your business,” says Bryan Fung, executive director at WSP.

Sankar .S. Villupuram, Director, Advanced Digital Engineering, Arup

Embrace the transformative potential of edge computing and appreciate the importance of processing data close to the source for enabling real-time decisions and unlocking new possibilities — vital for Hong Kong's smart city applications: “The real magic lies in embedding the hardware, the software and the machine learning model in one location at different parts of the edge,” says Sankar S. Villupuram, director of advanced digital engineering at Arup.

Teddy Lo, Managing Director, Boldyn Networks

Collaboration and interoperability are two sides of the same coin and vital for seamless connectivity, especially between networks and stakeholders: “Seamless interoperability and collaboration are vital for modern companies,” says Teddy Lo, managing director at Boldyn Networks.

Terence Wong, Head of APAC, 5G Industry & IoT Community, GSMA

Real-world issues drive Hong Kong’s smart city development; leveraging Private 5G and IoT can address unique urban challenges and shine a spotlight on the benefits and challenges: “Although it's very small and can't compare to the scale of China, Japan or Korea, it is a really good lighthouse for many use cases… It is also about solving Hong Kong problems, like the difficulty recruiting talent and the ageing population,” says Terence Wong, head of APAC 5G Industry & IoT Community at GSMA.

Steven So

SVP, Data Center, NTT Com Asia

Power will be a critical challenge in the era of AI, with data centres using electricity that can power a small country. “When we step up to AI, especially about AI training, we're talking about data centres at the scale of 200, 300, or even 500 megawatts," says Steven So, senior vice president for data center at NTT Com Asia.

Dr. Alan Cheung

Chief Director, Artificial Intelligence and Trust Technologies, ASTRI

Ethical and privacy guardrails are a must, and federated learning may point the way. “As a research institute, we look into different new technologies and how to protect privacy. The more AI you use, the more data you need, especially for financial institutions. Banks and insurance companies also need more alternative data to estimate their clients’ creditworthiness or health risk. So, we're looking at a technology called federated learning,” says Dr. Alan Cheung, chief director of artificial intelligence and trust technologies at ASTRI.

AI’s evolving infrastructure

The infrastructure supporting these advances is evolving just as rapidly. NTT is experimenting with photonic networks — a hybrid of electronic and photonic technology that promises to connect data centres with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Yet perhaps the biggest challenge is not technology but human expertise. The lack of knowledge means that companies are investing resources in the wrong place.

Equally important is that the AI journey should be done as a partnership. As AI learning evolves across different industries, it is vital to have the right partnerships to share knowledge and solutions.

Going past the humanoid inflection point

The panel had a clear message: as humanoid AI systems become more sophisticated, success will depend not just on raw computational power but on a delicate balance of infrastructure, ethics, partners, and understanding. Organizations will need to master all to navigate this new frontier.

Looking ahead, Hong Kong faces a crucial AI inflexion point. As humanoids move from laboratories into our daily lives, the infrastructure supporting them must evolve from brute force to elegant efficiency. This means embracing distributed computing, smarter power management, and new approaches we haven't yet imagined.

What's certain is that waiting for the future of humanoid AI to evolve is not the solution. As NTT Com Asia's So says, "You can't get away from [AI], so embrace it." We'll need the proper foundation — technology and humans — to support that transformation.

According to this panel, the answer lies in the convergence of AI chips, cloud computing, and data centres, guided by ethical principles and powered by innovative approaches to energy and infrastructure.

Private 5G & IoT: The Power Duet Fuelling Hong Kong's Smart City Revolution

Moderated by:

Jolly Wong, Policy Fellow, Center of Science and Policy, University of Cambridge

Panellists:

Phil McManus, Director of Innovations, NTT Com Asia

Bryan Fung, Executive Director, WSP

Sankar .S. Villupuram, Director, Advanced Digital Engineering, Arup

Teddy Lo, Managing Director, Boldyn Networks

Terence Wong, Head of APAC 5G Industry & IoT Community, GSMA

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