The Legislative Yuan should adopt applied artificial intelligence (AI) guidelines to facilitate communication with the public and protect government information security, lawmakers and groups said yesterday.
The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) and the London-based Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) made the comments at a news conference at the legislature in Taipei, advocating for the use of the Artificial Intelligence Guidelines for Parliaments the UK-based foundation published last year.
The Legislative Yuan must adopt AI, a technology that almost everyone uses, TFD president Liao Da-chi (廖達琪) said in a prerecorded video.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The guidelines aim to help legislatures worldwide navigate the technological pitfalls of AI, including risks to privacy and government secrets, Liao said.
The two foundations in March signed a “smart parliament” cooperative agreement in the presence of Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), said Chen Nah-chia (陳乃嘉), the director of the WFD’s Taiwan office.
The TDF and WFD collaboration would focus on overcoming the complex international and multidisciplinary challenges arising from the intersection of democracy and AI, she said.
Taiwanese must ensure that technology is a facilitator of democracy and not a threat to it, Chen added.
Applied AI could improve the quality of the legislature’s work by eliminating errors in the writing of laws and attributing responsibility when mistakes occur, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said.
The guidelines provide many case studies that could assist the Legislative Yuan make use of AI in the appropriate fields, she said.
The guidelines could help the legislature the same way as the proposed basic law governing AI, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Ju-chun (葛如鈞) said.
Lawmakers should consider AI’s potential for improving the legislature’s efficiency, transparency, and ability to inform the public clearly and quickly, Ko said.
Parliaments that fail to develop necessary AI policies would contribute to widening the gap between the emerging technology and governments’ ability to regulate them, guideline coauthor Franklin de Vrieze said.
The European Parliament and the legislatures of Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands and Estonia are some of the legislative bodies that have rolled out applied AI, which has proven effective in writing laws, recording meetings, boosting public participation and determining meeting agendas, he said.
Lawmakers should use AI as a “diligent intern” to research their options, not as a provider of solutions, guideline coauthor Marci Harris, executive director of the PopVox Foundation, said.
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