PAOBank, OneConnect to use advanced AI to fight deepfakes

The firms join Hong Kong’s fraud detection cohort.

PAO Bank Limited and OneConnect Financial Technology will enhance detection of deepfakes as it joins the second cohort of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) sandbox.

Within the sandbox, PAObank and OneConnect will use AI-powered facial recognition to verify user selfies in real time and identify faces that are forged or synthetically generated. This capability will help detect and prevent fraudulent activities.

The bank, a member of Ping An Insurance Company of China, serves 247 million individuals and over 4 million corporate clients. It used its AI models in over 650 business scenarios with 818 million usage calls that helped serve their customers.

OneConnect, Ping An’s financial technology arm, provides anti-fraud solutions such as facial recognition, multi-country document verification, deepfake detection, and device risk assessment. By mid-2025, it served 214 enterprises across 21 countries and regions, the company said.

The new deepfake detector was made in partnership with Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited.