The government is to purchase 100 more graphics processing units (GPUs) to boost Taiwan’s high-performance computing power that is essential to the development of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) said yesterday.
The ministry plans to procure 100 more GPUs this year if the legislature approves its proposed budget, Administration for Digital Industries Director-General Lin Jiunn-shiow (林俊秀) told a news conference.
“The number of GPUs owned by the government would reach 140, including the 40 GPUs purchased in 2024,” he said, adding that computing power generated by GPUs would be available to use by AI start-up firms and information service providers.
Photo: CNA
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing (林宜敬) said that the government was unable to boost the computing power last year because of a comprehensive budget cut.
“Computing power is crucial to the development of the AI industry in Taiwan. We hope that the legislature would quickly pass the budget plan,” Lin Yi-jing said.
Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed that Taiwan has sufficient electricity to build computing power centers, he said.
“We hope such facilities would be built and funded by the private sector to ensure that their cloud data centers would continue to operate with enough electricity,” he added.
Lin Yi-jing detailed the four goals that the ministry aims to accomplish this year: stepping up efforts to crack down on online scams, developing the software industry, bolstering cybersecurity resilience and building a digital government.
As of Tuesday last week, the ministry’s network had received reports of 614,971 online scam cases, of which 298,299 cases had been taken down.
“We will continue to expand our anti-scam team by including online service providers in the private sector. Meta, which owns Facebook, has used 300,000 scam messages to train its AI system to flag scams,” Lin Yi-jing said.
Specific measures to develop the software industry include providing free computing power to AI start-up teams; proposing a data innovation and utilization development bill (促進資料創新利用發展條例); establishing the Taiwan Sovereign AI Training Corpus; issuing AI talent industry accreditation guidelines (AI人才產業認定指引); jointly setting up the AI Civil Service Talent Development Office with the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration; organizing industry matchmaking events; and introducing National Development Fund capital to advance the “Enhanced Investment in AI Start-ups Implementation Program,” he said.
Comprehensive protection measures would be implemented across legal, technological and commercial dimensions, with the goal of enhancing cybersecurity resilience across land, sea and air domains, he said.
As for building a digital government, the ministry is to promote the Digital Certificate Wallet policy, providing integrated, one-stop digital services across agencies, from birth and schooling to employment and old age, he said.
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS