The National Science and Technology Council yesterday said that it plans to release an updated version of its Trustworthy AI Dialog Engine (TAIDE) for commercial applications by the end of this year.
The council first announced the TAIDE project in February and yesterday’s announcement showcased the project’s first-phase results.
Council researchers fed 7 billion parameters into TAIDE over four months of development, it said.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The program’s budget of NT$2 billion to NT$3 billion (US$65.1 million to US$97.7 million) is smaller than those of generative artificial intelligence (AI) projects in other countries, but it is nonetheless a significant achievement for Taiwan, National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Tseng-tsong (吳政忠) told a news conference.
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Department of Applied Mathematics professor Lee Yuh-jye (李育杰), who participated in the project, said all participants put in significant effort after the council announced the program.
The system would incorporate Taiwanese culture, its unique phrases and usage of Mandarin, its values and other aspects so that it can understand and respond to local needs, Wu said.
“We will introduce documents on various subjects in traditional Chinese characters into the system, as well as other languages, such as Hoklo [commonly known as Taiwanese], Hakka and others,” Lee added.
The program is performing well in terms of drafting summaries, translating texts, and writing letters and articles, and is more stable and accurate when processing queries in traditional Chinese, he said.
With more robust graphic processing units (GPUs) set to come online at the National Center for High-Performance Computing in October, it would be possible to release a 13-billion parameter trial model for industry and government users, he added.
However, Wu said generative AI presents an opportunity to advance humanity’s collective knowledge while having the potential to affect the global community on a scale more significant than the Industrial Revolution.
With TAIDE, the council aims to develop a trustworthy system that would grant Taiwan an edge in the development of AI in the Chinese-language market, he said.
Taiwan Web Service Corp (台智雲) president Peter Wu (吳漢章) said Taiwan has successfully tapped the latest AI trends, adding that at least 15 sectors have over the past year voiced a need for AI systems.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) research supervisor Shiu Da-shan (許大山) said that Taiwan achieving first-stage results in just under four months was an impressive feat.
E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) chief digital officer Chang Chih-hsing (張智星) said the company estimated that developing its own generative AI system would take 1.22 years, adding that it was glad to see the TAIDE model being developed.
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