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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
AI TALENT: No financial details were released about the deal, in which top Groq executives, including its CEO, would join Nvidia to help advance the technology Nvidia Corp has agreed to a licensing deal with artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Groq, furthering its investments in companies connected to the AI boom and gaining the right to add a new type of technology to its products. The world’s largest publicly traded company has paid for the right to use Groq’s technology and is to integrate its chip design into future products. Some of the start-up’s executives are leaving to join Nvidia to help with that effort, the companies said. Groq would continue as an independent company with a new chief executive, it said on Wednesday in a post on its Web
CHINA RIVAL: The chips are positioned to compete with Nvidia’s Hopper and Blackwell products and would enable clusters connecting more than 100,000 chips Moore Threads Technology Co (摩爾線程) introduced a new generation of chips aimed at reducing artificial intelligence (AI) developers’ dependence on Nvidia Corp’s hardware, just weeks after pulling off one of the most successful Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) in years. “These products will significantly enhance world-class computing speed and capabilities that all developers aspire to,” Moore Threads CEO Zhang Jianzhong (張建中), a former Nvidia executive, said on Saturday at a company event in Beijing. “We hope they can meet the needs of more developers in China so that you no longer need to wait for advanced foreign products.” Chinese chipmakers are in
RSS