The Ministry of Digital Affairs(moda) announced that, given the recent rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), it has become an official partner of the international non-governmental organization, the “Collective Intelligence Project” (CIP) today (25th), to ensure the alignment of AI applications with the interests of the general public and further create the necessary application services for society. As a member of the “Alignment Assemblies” project, the moda’s goals on a global and public level are to assist Taiwan in building consensus among the public regarding the needs and risks associated with AI, and collectively address the “Alignment Problem” of AI. Starting in July this year (2023), the moda plans to shape the direction of AI development through Ideathons, using Taiwan as a demonstration field and employing a model of citizen participation and deliberation.

The moda emphasized that the CIP is an international non-governmental organization advocating technology that encompasses social development, industrial progress, and public trust. It believes that the development of AI should prioritize ethics and public interest. The CIP’s partners also include OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT), The GovLab at Northeastern University, Anthropic (an AI company), and GETTING-Plurality (a research think tank on plurality).

During the Democratic Summit in March this year, the moda, led by Minister Audrey Tang, initiated this project in collaboration with the CIP to build a global consensus among people around the world and ensure the alignment of AI with human values. By joining this project, the moda aims to promote digital democracy and global partnerships while fostering a diverse and inclusive digital culture for Taiwan’s AI development.

The moda stated that in July this year, it will launch the “Democratizing AI Futures” dialogue through Ideathons and invite public participation. Moreover, in August, it will organize deliberative workshops to discuss how to respond to the development of generative AI.

Minister Tang explained that AI has brought profound social changes, and issues such as algorithms, intellectual property, technological ethics, public services, and social impact have attracted considerable attention, posing new challenges for democratic governance. In response to the social concerns arising from the generative AI trend, the Executive Yuan is actively working on the draft of the “Basic Law on Artificial Intelligence.” The moda also expects that through the early demonstration of the CIP, important information can be provided to policymakers and technology developers to ensure the alignment of AI development with the public interest.

The CIP was jointly launched in August 2022 by Divya Siddarth, a former social scientist from the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, and Saffron Huang, a former research engineer at Google DeepMind. Its operational goal is to “empower everyone to influence the direction of AI development,” and its mission is to enable meaningful participation by the general public in shaping the development of transformative technologies such as AI.

Reference:
https://cip.org/alignmentassemblies