An open-source traditional Mandarin large language model (LLM) localized for Taiwan was released yesterday, achieving higher scores in the Taiwanese bar exam than GPT-4o.
The project, called Taiwan Mixture of Experts (TAME), was initiated by Chang Chun Group, Pegatron, Unimicron, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, TechOrange and National Taiwan University.
Using Nvidia’s Taipei-1 supercomputer in Kaohsiung, it was trained on nearly 500 billion tokens of data provided by the partners in their specialized fields.
                    Photo: Reuters
On its first attempt taking last year’s bar exam, Project TAME did better than 89 percent of test takers, LegalSign.ai chief executive officer Steven Chen (陳啟桐) said.
After only a few months, it has already received outstanding marks when taking exams for university students, legal professionals, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, tour guides and drivers, Project TAME said.
Out of 39 evaluations and nearly 3,000 questions, Project TAME outperformed all other available models, with an accuracy rate 6.8 percent higher than the second-place Claude-Opus and 9.3 percent higher than GPT-4o.
The model is available to use for free online at https://twllm.com and would be open source, organizers said.
An interactive chatbot version for the public was created by AMPIC.
It is also available for download by enterprises and developers on Github.
The new LLM is the result of 350,000 GPU hours and 1,285 working hours by 31 engineers, Project TAME leader and Pegatron associate vice president of AI development Andrew Hsiao (蕭安助) said.
Its two specialties are localization for Taiwan and application for industry, he said.
It was only released today, but enterprises would be able to verify and fine-tune the model as time goes on to verify whether it is suitable for use in different fields, he added.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19