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.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS