Experts yesterday urged lawmakers to facilitate the development of a generative artificial intelligence (AI) system that utilizes Taiwan-centric Chinese language content amid a push to pass tech-friendly copyright laws.
Academics and industry insiders made the comment at a joint hearing on proposals to craft an AI basic law held by the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee and Transportation Committee.
The committees were considering clashing initiatives to pass an AI basic law spearheaded by the Ministry of Digital Affairs and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers Chiu Jo-Hua (邱若華) and Ko Ju-chun (葛如鈞).
Photo: Liao Cheng-hui, Taipei Times
Government leadership is required in the industry-wide effort to develop large-language models that focus on content written in traditional Chinese characters, Institute for Information Industry researcher Hung Yu-shiang (洪毓祥) said.
Officials could provide valuable assistance in promoting public-private collaborations to create a workforce for the AI sector, and craft a legal framework to regulate the industry’s use of data and privacy standards, he said.
EU member states could serve as a model for Taiwan’s emulation, he said.
Caroline Lin (林志潔), a professor of technology law at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, said the bills being presented failed to address concerns over Taiwan’s AI sovereignty.
The algorithms currently available too often produce content nominally written in traditional Chinese characters, but make use of syntax and phrases derived from Chinese-style Mandarin, not that of Taiwan’s, she said.
Lawmakers and officials must understand policies concerning the AI industry have national security and geopolitical ramifications, and are not a simple matter of boosting the economy, Lin said.
MeetTomorrow Inc cofounder Hsueh Liang-bin (薛良斌), whose company developed the generative AI MeetAndy, supported Ko’s proposal to create a national AI strategy committee except parts that authorized mayors and county commissioners to participate in the organization.
A national-level mechanism to assess and handle the risks posed by AI systems similar to the ones established by the EU AI Act is needed to protect Taiwan’s economic and national interest, he said.
Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Yeh Ning (葉寧) said the ministry is not prepared to unveil its proposal at the moment, as the Executive Yuan is still in the process of assessing its requisite funding levels.
Overcoming capability gaps in Taiwan’s AI industry with regard to large language models and creating a legal framework governing fair use of data by developers are the ministry’s main concerns regarding the bill, he said.
Officials are creating a database for traditional Chinese character-based content and a national-level corpus, but it is expected to be time-consuming, he said.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs is additionally cultivating a workforce in collaboration with the National Council of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education, he said.
The government’s AI development policy is to be guided by digital equality, with an emphasis on infrastructure and applied AI that spread the benefits of technology among all Taiwanese, he said.
Ko acknowledged concerns of the hearing’s participants over AI sovereignty, saying that governmental agencies should play a larger role in creating the databases that would be used to train Taiwanese AIs,
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) is urged to be more active in the legislative and executive branches’ discussions about the proposed AI basic law, he added.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to