The government is to allocate about NT$30 billion (US$922 million) annually over three years for artificial intelligence (AI) development and seek to enhance cooperation with the incoming administration of US president-elect Donald Trump, National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) told Nikkei Asia in an exclusive interview published yesterday.
The government plans to budget about NT$1 billion annually during President William Lai’s (賴清德) term, he was quoted as saying.
The funds would go toward bolstering infrastructure to achieve “AI sovereignty,” with the goal of boosting overall computing power to 480 petaflops from 20 petaflops over the next four years, Wu said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Although Taiwan does not have many official diplomatic allies, it can still build friendly ties with other democracies, thereby improving national security, he said.
The government has embarked on collaborations with global AI giants such as Nvidia to build an AI data center and supercomputers, which would be used to train Taiwan’s own trustworthy AI dialogue engine (TAIDE), he said.
In terms of AI sovereignty, it is crucial for Taiwan to construct its own Chinese-language model that uses traditional characters, and TAIDE would be deployed at the National Center for High-Performance Computing to develop AI applications, he added.
Asked about Trump’s inauguration in January, Wu said he “certainly expects” to cooperate with the US, as it shares many goals with Taiwan.
Separately, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) on Wednesday said that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would build a new plant in Taiwan every year over the next decade.
National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清), who is a TSMC board director, yesterday at a meeting at the legislature’s Economics Committee said that TSMC would set up new plants in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung in the next three years, with the government ensuring stable power and water supply.
Asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ye Yuan-zhi (葉元之) about the US Department of Commerce’s approval of a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s fabs in Arizona, Liu said that TSMC’s 3-nanometer process technology would be transferred to the US as planned, but the 2-nanometer process technology would not.
The A16 process technology could be transferred to the US if necessary, he said, adding that TSMC would accept orders if the US government is willing to purchase its products.
Liu also said that Trump’s upcoming presidency is a “major factor” that could drive Taiwan’s economy to grow by more than 3 percent next year.
If Trump fulfils his campaign pledges to impose a 60 percent tariff on Chinese products, it would give Taiwan a great advantage because of the order-transfer effect, he said.
However, Taiwan could encounter trade volume fluctuations or a 10 percent tariff on exports to the US, Liu said, adding that he would discuss these uncertainties with the traditional manufacturing industries.
Asked by KMT Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) about local talent sufficiency in semiconductors, Liu said the sector is projected to recruit 6,000 people per year and continue to increase later on.
Although the labor supply is currently enough for the sector, it could squeeze out other industries, he said, adding that he would discuss the problem with relevant agencies.
To attract more foreign talent to Taiwan, the NDC is to relax the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) to hire more international mid-level skilled workers, Liu said.
The government is seeking to clearly define “mid-level skilled workers,” as it had found that technical challenges could not be overcome solely by introducing more workers, he said, adding that draft amendments to the act are expected to be announced by the middle of next month.
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