Taiwan is to develop its own version of chat generative pretrained transformer (ChatGPT) to prevent an artificial intelligence (AI) system trained to offer biased information from China or authoritarian regimes from dominating the industry, Minister of Science and Technology Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) said yesterday.
San Francisco-based OpenAI Laboratory has garnered 100 million users worldwide within two months of launching the chatbot. Chinese search engine Baidu Inc (百度) has announced that it is to launch a similar app in two months.
The council is budgeting NT$34.9 billion (US$1.15 billion) to set up eight major technology platforms: AI, semiconductor and quantum technology, space and satellite communications, cybersecurity, precision healthcare technology, net zero emissions technology, national defense technology, as well as the humanities and social sciences, Wu said.
Photo: Reuters
Most of the funding — NT$11.9 billion — would be used to develop net zero emissions technology, followed by NT$8.3 billion to develop semiconductor technology, he said.
ChatGPT communicates in English, while a similar system developed by Baidu is expected to communicate in simplified Chinese, Wu said, adding that as competition between democratic nations and authoritarian regimes intensifies, Taiwan, as democratic nation, could contribute by developing a system that communicates in traditional Chinese.
“ChatGPT generally uses public information to generate responses, but the system can be tweaked manually so that it can generate specific responses to certain questions,” he said. “Taiwan would create its own version of ChatGPT to avoid AI systems trained to provide biased information from dominating the industry.”
Photo: CNA
Taiwan can compete in AI by investing more in talent, Wu said, adding that it has never sought to surpass other nations in terms of funding research and development in any emerging technology.
Meanwhile, Wu said that Taiwan would continue training talent and bringing in overseas funding if it is necessary to maintain its leading position in the semiconductor industry, which is expected to be a core technology worldwide in the next 20 years.
“Through the training of talent in other countries, we hope it will draw talent and start-up companies to establish operational bases in Taiwan and join the industries in which Taiwan is a leader,” he said.
The council is to establish an information security technology research center to advance research of cybersecurity issues, Wu said.
The Taiwan Space Agency and the Industrial Technology Research Institute are to develop a low-orbit satellite system, he said.
“Scientists have completed the preliminary designs of the launch pads for two experimental satellites owned by the Taiwan Space Agency, with 80 percent of the components being made in Taiwan,” Wu said, adding that a more detailed design is to be delivered by the end of this year.
He also confirmed Taiwan-US science and technology collaboration meetings are to be held in May.
The meetings were scheduled to be held in November last year in Taiwan, but they were postponed due to the US midterm elections.
The US delegation that was scheduled to arrive in Taiwan last year included officials and representatives from the White House, the US Department of State, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the council said.
Members of the US delegation would exchange views and sign cooperation agreements on major issues with Taiwanese officials and scientists during the meetings, it said.
The National Science and Technology Council and the US National Science Foundation are to hold a technology cooperation annual meeting, it added.
The delegation would visit the Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan Space Agency, Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute, National Center for High-Performance Computing and the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City in Tainan, the council said.
SOFT TENNIS: Yu Kai-wen and Huang Shih-yuan narrowly defeated their Japanese rivals to capture Taiwan’s first gold at the Asian Games in Nagoya Yu Kai-wen (余凱文) and Huang Shih-yuan (黃詩媛) won Taiwan’s first gold of this year’s Asian Games, defeating a Japanese duo in a nail-biter in the soft tennis mixed doubles final in Nagoya, Japan, while Johnny Sun (孫家閎) won silver in wushu and Shih Cheng-chung (石政中) won bronze in men’s kumite. Yu and Huang narrowly defeated Japan’s Toshiki Uematsu and Rena Temma 5-4 (2-4, 5-3, 4-2, 1-4, 1-4, 4-0, 1-4, 4-1, 7-5) to give Taiwan its first gold in soft tennis mixed doubles at an Asian Games since 2018. Sun secured Taiwan’s first wushu medal at this year’s game, with a combined score
UNITY: Lai thanked the nations who spoke up for Taiwan, saying that democracies must stand together to face global authoritarian expansion Taiwan yesterday thanked eight European and Indo-Pacific countries for opposing unilateral changes to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait in a joint statement earlier this week, as well as three of Taiwan’s allies for speaking up for the nation’s participation in the UN at the body’s General Assembly in New York. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) welcomed the support and expressed his appreciation for the countries’ stance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Foreign ministers and senior representatives of Australia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, South Korea and the UK issued a statement on Tuesday
AT-RISK GROUPS: Of the accumulated 1,586 severe cases and 304 related deaths in this flu season, 65.8% were older people and 83.2% had chronic diseases, an official said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that 165 severe flu cases and 30 flu-related deaths were reported last week, the highest weekly numbers in this flu season, and that cases might continue to increase, urging people to take precautions. Medical visits for flu-like illnesses increased by 1.4 percent to 141,374 last week, with 11.8 percent being emergency visits, showing that the seasonal flu is still in its epidemic period, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to Monday, 165 severe flu cases and 30 flu-related deaths were confirmed, the highest weekly numbers
FACTS DISTORTION: The MAC rejected Xi’s remarks that the US and ‘China’ fought side-by-side during WWII, saying the ROC was Washington’s true ally during the war Taiwan yesterday denounced Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) comments to US President Donald Trump on the nation’s future, after Xi appeared to push Trump for a subtle change in stance that could erode US support for Taiwan. Xi told Trump in Washington on Thursday that he hoped the US would adhere to the “correct position” of opposing Taiwanese independence, according to a Chinese readout of the talks. That would be a tougher version of Washington’s long-standing formulation that it does not “support” independence. There was no immediate White House readout of the exchange. Xi’s remarks represent “the consistent Chinese approach of distorting facts
RSS