Taiwan is working to launch its own version of a generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of a “shared model” by the end of this year, National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) said on Wednesday.
Instead of a comprehensive system similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Taiwan’s model is likely to target special areas such as finance and processing of confidential government data, Wu told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee in Taipei.
The decision was made because Taiwan has a limited budget for technology development of NT$132.7 billion (US$4.34 billion) per year, while OpenAI has already invested US$10 billion in the field, he said.
Photo: Reuters
Wu was responding to lawmakers’ questions about Taiwan’s progress in developing its own generative AI amid excitement over ChatGPT, which outputs natural text based on prompts from users.
The council is collaborating with local experts and businesses to build and edit a mega database before looking for international support to complete the advanced AI system, Wu said.
Asked about the economic impact of generative AI — as it is expected to be deployed across sectors — Wu said that “AI will not replace human beings, but people who do not take advantage of AI will be replaced by those who do.”
While industry insiders expressed similar optimism about the prospects of AI, some said it was a bad idea for Taiwan to develop its own version of ChatGPT.
It would be a waste of money to create something similar to the OpenAI invention, said Sega Cheng (程世嘉), chief executive officer of AI company iKala Interactive Media Inc (愛卡拉).
Taiwan should instead develop related applications, Cheng said.
It takes practical experience and skills to develop an AI, and the government should serve as a facilitator, bringing stakeholders together to discuss the future rather than being the sole decisionmaker, he said.
Cheng urged manufacturers and other businesses to introduce advanced AI systems immediately to provide value-added services.
“AI is no longer optional, but should rather be treated as basic infrastructure,” he said.
South Korea’s equity benchmark yesterday crossed a new milestone just a month after surpassing the once-unthinkable 5,000 mark as surging global memory demand powers the country’s biggest chipmakers. The KOSPI advanced as much as 2.6 percent to a record 6,123, with Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc each gaining more than 2 percent. With the benchmark now up 45 percent this year, South Korea’s stock market capitalization has also moved past France’s, following last month’s overtaking of Germany’s. Long overlooked by foreign funds, despite being undervalued, South Korean stocks have now emerged as clear winners in the global market. The so-called “artificial intelligence
‘SEISMIC SHIFT’: The researcher forecast there would be about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior year and erasing years of gains The global smartphone market is expected to contract 12.9 percent this year due to the unprecedented memorychip shortage, marking “a crisis like no other,” researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said. The new forecast, a dramatic revision down from earlier estimates, gives the latest accounting of the ongoing memory crunch that is affecting every corner of the electronics industry. The demand for advanced memory to power artificial intelligence (AI) tasks has drained global supply until well into next year and jeopardizes the business model of many smartphone makers. IDC forecast about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior
People stand in a Pokemon store in Tokyo on Thursday. One of the world highest-grossing franchises is celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday.
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) latest AI model, set to be released as soon as next week, was trained on Nvidia Corp’s most advanced AI chip, the Blackwell, a senior official of US President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday, in what could represent a violation of US export controls. The US believes DeepSeek will remove the technical indicators that might reveal its use of American AI chips, the official said, adding that the Blackwells are likely clustered at its data center in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. The person declined to say how the US government received
RSS