Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) on Thursday last week threw her hat into the ring as a candidate in the party’s primary for Tainan mayor. So far, Yeh has advocated doing away with the Zhuyin Fuhao (注音符號, commonly known as Bopomofo) phonetic system — the primary method used to transcribe Chinese characters in Taiwan — and replacing them with a Romanized phonetic system. Yeh’s reasoning is that Taiwan needs to become more international.
Let us put aside the question of whether national educational policy is a responsibility of the Tainan mayor, or whether Yeh should be using her position as a lawmaker to legislate for such a change.
Let us also sidestep the questions of whether Romanized phonetic systems really are commonly used around the globe, why it is not possible for the nation to use several different phonetic systems and whether studying English and other foreign languages would be the best way for Taiwanese to become more integrated into the global community.
These questions are already out of date. Taiwan should instead be embracing new thinking around artificial intelligence (AI).
Microsoft Research Asia vice president Tim Pan (潘天佑) has recorded a public lecture that clearly demonstrates that AI is not only able to recognize speech and images, but its error rate is already lower than that of humans.
It is also able to recognize human feelings and humor, and can compose poetry after being shown a photograph. An anthology of poetry composed by AI has already been published.
The rapid development has brought about much convenience. It can already, as the Bible says, let the eyes of the blind see by providing invaluable assistance to those with visual and hearing impairments.
Once the price of AI comes down and it becomes more accurate and more universally adopted, it will transform life as we know it.
Previously, without understanding a foreign language it was impossible to participate in inter-cultural communication, which made studying foreign languages essential. Students of all nations, including Taiwan, have had to endure grueling language courses, which entail memorizing endless lists of words.
The age of AI, which we are now entering, is to obviate the need for such tedious study, and — to quote the Bible again — the oppressed will be liberated.
In this respect, AI is certainly welcome news for humanity.
Many people study a foreign language their entire lives without ever being able to master it. Once the technology matures, smartphones and other networked devices will be able to use AI programs to help users read, listen to, translate and interpret languages.
Once this stage is reached, the public will no longer need to waste their precious youth studying foreign languages.
Instead, with the assistance of AI, a group of people could have one person speaking non-standard English, another fluent French, while I could be speaking my mother tongue Hakka or Taiwanese — there could even be a hearing-impaired person present — yet there would be absolutely no language barrier to impede interaction and communication.
AI is not just able to perform the task of literal translation — it is also able to determine implied meanings, and instead of replying to a request or question using speech, AI could respond with a poem, compose a song or even create a video.
It is disheartening to hear people rehashing old arguments about phonetic systems and how to become more international when we are living in this new age of AI.
To prepare for the future, Taiwan needs leaders with foresight and vision. At the very least, it needs leaders who are thinking in terms of AI.
This does not mean accepting and using all forms of AI; the nation’s leaders need to understand some of the problems inherent to the technology.
For example, during transnational business forums or diplomatic exchanges, there is a risk that classified information could be leaked. This is because whoever controls “the cloud” would have access to entire conversations. This is potentially even scarier than the world depicted by George Orwell in 1984.
Should Taiwan change from using the Zhuyin Fuhao phonetic system to using a Romanized phonetic system? Sorry, but this is not even a problem worthy of discussion.
Political leaders with foresight and vision should be worrying about whether Taiwan’s research into AI will deliver beneficial results.
They should also be considering whether, while benefiting from the convenience of AI, Taiwan would be able to avoid the pitfalls that the technology will undoubtedly also bring.
Weber Lai is a professor in the National Taiwan University of Arts’ Department of Radio and Television and president of the Chinese Communication Management Society.
Translated by Edward Jones
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