Deputy Minister Yi-Jing Lin attended the International Artificial Intelligence Summit 2024 held by Forum Europe in Belgium on December 5th, 2024. Deputy Minister Lin joined the panel discussion titled “AI Equitable Access and Opportunity: AI for Inclusive Growth” with Kenya Amb. to the EU Bitange Ndemo, Signe Ratso, deputy director-general for innovation, prosperity and international cooperation of the European Commission, and Anne-Lise Thieblemont, Vice President of Qualcomm, and shared Taiwan’s AI development strategy.

In his speech, Deputy Minister Lin stated that the rapid development of AI technology has created tremendous possibilities for the global community and that those who harness the power of AI can thrive in the future. He took Oppenheimer’s invention of the atom bomb as an example to illustrate that potential dangers come together with breakthroughs in AI. For instance, the operation of AI systems is similar to that of the human brain, which increases speeds by a hundredfold each year. The democratic countries must work together to establish a beneficial ecosystem for AI development to ensure that AI won’t be manipulated or used maliciously. 

Deputy Minister Lin emphasized that the expensive cost of the AI model is a problem for development, which leads to the concentration of techniques to technology behemoths. Therefore, he suggested that nations should also develop AI models tailored to their specific national needs aside from AI techniques sharing. Take Taiwan as an example. He shared the two implemental strategies; one is refining AI models created by large technology companies to incorporate Taiwan’s cultural and linguistic characteristics, thereby creating localized models suited to the nation’s needs,  while the other is developing AI models targeted at specific industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing, to address the unique requirements of these sectors.

During the meeting, Deputy Minister Lin engaged in in-depth discussions with leading AI experts, including Elizabeth Kelly, President of the U.S. AI Safety Research Institute, Oliver Ilott, Director of the UK AI Research Institute, and Bilel Jamoussir, Deputy Director and Study Group Chair of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecommunication Standardization Bureau. These exchanges focused on strategies for countries to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by AI effectively. Taiwan will continue its efforts to build an inclusive and resilient digital society. The government is committed to advancing innovative and responsible applications of AI and digital technologies, ensuring that the development of emerging technologies promotes economic growth while upholding the core values of freedom, democracy, and human rights.