Taiwan is investing NT$65 million (US$1.98 million) to build shared computing resources for eligible Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) developers, Minister of Digital Affairs Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男) said yesterday.
AI technology is important for the nation’s economic future, but the cost of computers and technical personnel poses formidable barriers to small and medium enterprises interested in entering the field, he said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times).
The ministry’s “computing pool” program is aimed at this problem by offering computational power to enterprises that lack the resources to test ideas and promising concepts, Huang said.
Photo: Hsu Tzu-ling, Taipei Times
The platform is made of five Supermicro servers equipped with 32 Nvidia H100 and eight AMD M1300X processors to enable high-speed computations, he said, adding that the system would begin accepting applications before Aug. 13.
The ministry expects to approve 60 Taiwanese enterprises to have access to the computing resources, with each permitted to use the processors for six weeks at a time, he said.
Furnishing government-backed servers to support private-sector innovation would make research and development more efficient, boosting the Taiwanese technology sector’s competitiveness, he said.
Interested enterprises should apply for the use of the computing resources with the Administration of Digital Industries, but be aware that priority is given to companies younger than eight years, he said.
The computing platform cannot be used for cryptocurrency mining or training another model via an application programming interface, Huang said.
Separately, the ministry has obtained the legislature’s authorization to use NT$10 billion from the National Development Fund to invest in innovations in AI technology, Huang said.
Details about the application process for corporate partners and eligibility would be announced next month, he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry has met with representatives from companies owning popular platforms including Google, Meta and Line to discuss measures to fight Internet-based fraud, Huang said, adding that they broadly agreed to the government’s requests.
These demands include a commitment to more speedy takedowns of scammer advertisements and a specific pledge from Meta to verify the identity of all advertisers on its platforms to root out impersonators, he said.
The ministry is eyeing the creation of a dedicated committee to counter disinformation as a more credible alternative to empowering a government apparatus to decide the authenticity of information by itself, he said.
The committee would be authorized to evaluate the truthfulness of content and order erroneous or harmful information to be removed from social media platforms, Huang said.
In addition, the legislature has passed the third reading of a slew of amendments on laws regarding fraud that affect the ministry, he said.
These new laws would require online-based advertisement platforms to have a physical office or a person in charge in Taiwan, disclose their identity in business dealings and they would be obligated to comply with government anti-fraud measures, Huang said.
Failure to comply with that obligation could result in a repeatable maximum fine of NT$100 million, a sum capable of exerting real pressure on private sector companies, he said.
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