The controversy over the authorship of "Medisafe" -- an AI software said to be developed by a local form four student and winning multiple international awards -- has resurfaced following a public statement from the founder of the involved company.
The founder of AI Health Studio, Ahmed Jemaa, issued a statement on Monday (Aug 4) clarifying that the project was commissioned by "Dr. Roberta Pang" -- the female student's mother -- in March 2024.
While the client provided the initial concept, Jemaa emphasized that the entire project was built from scratch by the company.
He noted that they were never informed that the work would be submitted to several academic competitions, describing it as "unfair to the other participants."
Jemaa mentioned that Pang requested the removal of "Medisafe" from AI Health Studio's website on June 16. Shortly thereafter, the company observed a 45-fold increase in website traffic from Hong Kong, realizing that their project was being presented as an original creation by the daughter.
As the controversies escalated, it was alleged that Pang requested the company to change the project description from "from-scratch build" to "commercial promotion."
In response to media inquiries, Hong Kong Education City Limited -- the organizing body of the Hong Kong ICT Awards which the app is one of the winners -- stated that they have been following up on the incident according to the guidelines from the Digital Policy Office.
As the investigation is still underway, the organization refrained from making further comments on the case at this stage.
