Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀), along with representatives of 25 universities, yesterday announced the establishment of the Taiwan Artificial Intelligence College Alliance to enable students to take intercollegiate courses on artificial intelligence (AI) and obtain certificates.
The alliance, which begins official operations in the academic year starting this month, aims to prepare more than 10,000 students with AI-related expertise in the next three years, Cheng said.
In response to an urgent demand for AI talent in Taiwan’s technology industry, universities should have AI-related undergraduate courses, Cheng said, adding that the strategy must move from competition between universities, to intercollegiate cooperation and the forming of a “Team Taiwan.”
.Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The alliance is led by the Ministry of Education and several universities, with National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University and National Cheng Kung University as the main institutions participating in the initial stage, while other universities would have an opportunity to join later, he said.
With the alliance’s launch, AI learning resources would be popularized in universities across the nation, and if students from other countries in the region want to learn about AI, Taiwan would be the best destination for them, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said.
Based on the idea of “it takes a village to raise a child,” the ministry spent two months coordinating with top AI academics to overcome initial difficulties, Yeh said.
Students who complete the required courses would receive a program certificate from the ministry, he added.
“Industries can look for this certificate when they recruit AI talent,” he said.
The alliance plans to open four programs: AI exploration and application, AI industrial application, AI and natural language processing, and AI and visual technology application, Yeh said.
Each program would have five required courses, totaling 15 credits, and the maximum number of students for each course is set at 1,500, which could increase as more universities join the alliance, he said.
The alliance would have leading courses, satellite courses and regular courses, provided through an online digital learning platform, and students can interact with course instructors if they take the course synchronously, or with teaching assistants if they take them asynchronously, he said.
IBM Consulting, Taiwan manager Han Lin (林翰則) said the industry has a positive attitude about the alliance, and supports its establishment.
The alliance can integrate AI educational resources from universities across the nation to cultivate talent to meet a shortage of workers with AI specializations, he said.
IBM Consulting, Taiwan students who obtained the alliance’s certificate would be seen as having expertise in AI, so the company would consider recruiting them first, Lin said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS