The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is planning measures to cultivate 200,000 people with artificial intelligence (AI) skills, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the AI EXPO Taiwan exhibition in Taipei, Kuo said AI talent is key to economic and industrial development, and to integrating AI into Taiwan’s industrial transformation.
The ministry is planning tax incentives, encouraging industry-academic cooperation and competitions attractive to younger generations to encourage the spawning of AI talent, he said.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up 98 percent of Taiwan’s businesses, might have a hard time implementing AI because of their relatively small sizes, Kuo said.
Therefore, institutions such as the Metal Industries Research and Development Center (金屬工業研究發展中心) would establish AI demonstration sites to assist businesses in different sectors in introducing AI applications, he said.
According to forecasts from research institutions, the generative AI market would grow from US$40 billion last year to US$1.5 trillion in 2030, Kuo said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing (林宜敬) said the Ministry of Digital Affairs would collaborate with the MOEA, the National Development Council (NDC) and the National Science and Technology Council to train AI talent on applying current AI tools, running training models, and doing basic research and development.
While AI would change the world, its innovation and development should come from open competition in the private sector rather than from a domineering government, Lin said.
The government could support it by using tools such as computing power, data, talent, marketing and funding to create an environment to develop AI, he said.
It could also provide free computing power to start-ups and encourage ministries to release government data for start-ups to train AI models, he said.
In addition, the ministry would organize meetings with potential clients for local businesses, try to drum up orders for Taiwanese AI start-ups and create stable revenues, Lin said.
The ministry has secured NT$10 billion (US$302.14 million) in funding from the NDC to invest in the AI industry over the next 10 years, he said.
AI EXPO Taiwan is being held from yesterday until tomorrow at the Taipei Expo Park with the theme “Surfing the AI Waves.”
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS