President William Lai of Taiwan on Wednesday pledged to turn his country into an “artificial intelligence (AI) island” through a reliable power supply and building supercomputers.
“The revolutionary development of AI would absolutely play a key role in the era of digitization. Taiwan is very blessed to have a technology industry in which leaders spent decades working and catapulting Taiwan into the center of the AI revolution, turning Taiwan from nobody to the world’s supporting pillars,” Lai said in a speech at the opening ceremony of Computex Taipei at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.
Lai said there are three fundamental policies that the government would implement to transform Taiwan into an “AI island.”
First, the government would ensure that there is a reliable supply of electricity and provide diverse forms of “green energy,” Lai said, adding that Taiwan would also build its own data centers.
“Second, the government would build supercomputers. We thank Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang for donating a supercomputer to Taiwan, and we also thank Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co for agreeing to pay the cost of operating it,” Lai said.
“The government would help build supercomputers if necessary, which would not only meet our demands, but also could be used by researchers in industry, government institutions and academia. This would ensure that AI can continue to develop in Taiwan,” he said.
Third, the government would continue cultivating talent in information and communications technology, wafer and semiconductor manufacturing, and the AI industries so that the “AI island” goal can be achieved, he added.
Lai also urged industry leaders to support the government’s initiatives by investing in Taiwan.
This would help build an AI industry, which in turn would generate more innovation and applications, he said.
“We hope that more than 1 million small and medium-sized companies around the country would apply AI in running their businesses. This would ensure that the ‘AI island’ is not only a conceptual goal, but it would in reality give an economic boost to the nation and improve people’s lives,” Lai said.
Following his speech, Lai visited booths set up by Intel Corp, Micro-Star International Co, Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc, and listened to presentations about AI-related services and products.
