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.
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),
The US Department of Commerce last week ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipments of certain tools to China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體), its latest action to slow the country’s development of advanced chips, two people familiar with the matter said. The department sent letters to at least a handful of companies informing them of restrictions on tools and other materials destined for two Hua Hong facilities US officials believe make China’s most sophisticated chips, the people said. Top US chip equipment companies Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc and KLA Corp, each of which has significant
RSS