The administration of President William Lai (賴清德) has hit the ground running in several areas, but few more so than artificial intelligence (AI). Lai seems determined to make it a hallmark of his presidency alongside healthcare improvements, positioning Taiwan as a hub for the emergent technology in Asia and the world. It was even featured in his inaugural speech on May 20, tagged with the slogan “AI island.”
Saying that Taiwan must adapt to the pace of AI innovation, Lai called on the nation to “use AI’s computational power to make our nation, our military, our workforce and our economy stronger.”
The administration’s plan to accomplish this vague call to action is taking shape. According to Lai’s comments at Computex Taipei less than a month after his inauguration, the “AI island” goal would be achieved by building supercomputers and other high-tech infrastructure, cultivating talent and ensuring a stable power supply.
So how is it going so far?
The National Science and Technology Council last month announced a five-year, NT$36 billion (US$1.12 billion) fund to support the semiconductor industry and build advanced computer centers across southern Taiwan. A council official said that the project, paired with a separate chip innovation program, aims to increase the government’s computational power from 19 petaflops to 480 petaflops by 2028.
Enterprises are collaborating on the AI Computing Center, which is to be the 15th-most powerful supercomputer in the world, while the Forerunner 1 supercomputer built by the National Center for High-Performance Computing came online in July. To ensure AI developers could access these resources, the Ministry of Digital Affairs promised NT$65 million to build shared computing resources.
Talent cultivation has also been a focus, with several programs promising to incorporate AI into all levels of education. The Taiwan Artificial Intelligence College Alliance, which was unveiled last week, is to offer an AI certificate that students can present to employers as proof of AI competency after undergoing a program set by the Ministry of Education and top universities.
The energy component would be the hardest to crack. Industry leaders all repeat the same refrain, requesting stable, high-quality and cheap power as a prerequisite to developing the industry.
On a collision course with the government’s climate goals and commitment to eliminating nuclear power, there does not appear to be a solution that would satisfy all parties. The government’s lack of policy proposals has reflected this. The appointment of nuclear-friendly members to Lai’s National Climate Change Strategy Committee seems to suggest he might be willing to press pause on the “nuclear-free homeland” policy in favor of other goals.
However, an appointment or two does not equate to a policy shift. Until there are significant and novel investments in this area, the calls for a more robust power plan are warranted.
The “AI island” efforts reflect a genuine and considered determination to cultivate the industry, but planning and budgets mean little unless they can be implemented on a micro level. AI especially poses an existential risk that threatens harming a litany of other societal touchstones if approached recklessly. The technology is so new that societies worldwide are still struggling to imagine its potential consequences, much less mitigate them, even as governments and industry are racing to get ahead of the pack.
To avoid pitfalls, public servants, students, teachers, employees and others tasked with carrying out the groundwork must all keep the greater picture in mind during the rush to create an “AI island.”
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will stop at nothing to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, going as far as to create complete falsehoods. That the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never ruled Taiwan is an objective fact. To refute this, Beijing has tried to assert “jurisdiction” over Taiwan, pointing to its military exercises around the nation as “proof.” That is an outright lie: If the PRC had jurisdiction over Taiwan, it could simply have issued decrees. Instead, it needs to perform a show of force around the nation to demonstrate its fantasy. Its actions prove the exact opposite of its assertions. A
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
RSS