Written by Ian Murphy.
Image credit: National Science and Technology Council, Executive Yuan.
Taiwan is an important global technology and manufacturing base that is highly dependent on the secure maritime order to export its commodities and import needed inputs. Taiwan’s government understands the need to reduce reliance on external sources for its critical imports and the need to diversify existing export supply chains for established companies. As Artificial Intelligence technology moves from an early to an established industry, Taiwan recognizes the strategic importance of AI and has started developing its own AI capabilities. TAIDE, the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine, is Taiwan’s domestic project to build a large language model. Investing in building its own large language model at this stage will contribute to Taiwan’s self-sufficiency, protect its national security, and offer economic benefits.
The Economic Benefit of Developing Native AI
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains, prompting many countries to engage in reshoring production, reducing their number of foreign suppliers, and building their domestic manufacturing industries. Taiwan is not unique in wanting to reduce the risk of future disruptions and the impact of external shocks on its industries. By developing its AI industry relatively early, Taiwan is taking part in the “first mover advantage,” which will see it be one of the first nations to develop a domestic AI industry, giving it a strong position to shape the global AI industry, influence international standards around AI, and position itself as an exporter of AI technology.
Early investments into its AI industry are critical for building Taiwan’s long-term position as an AI hub, just as early investments into its semiconductor industry made it the leading producer of advanced microchips. The National Science and Technology Council, which is leading TAIDE’s development, aims to establish an ecosystem where research universities, startups, and government collaborate to create a domestic AI built around the Taiwanese identity and operates within an ethical framework. This framework will create a large language model that can be employed for Taiwanese domestic use and create a foundation for international collaboration and export.
Observers can understand Taiwan’s deliberate AI developments best by understanding its dependence on foreign energy imports and its push to diversify its semiconductor manufacturing industry. The National Science and Technology Council’s development efforts have largely focused on domestic research and development and domestic use for TAIDE. The goal for TAIDE is to rely on Taiwanese talent, Taiwanese production, and Taiwanese consumption, reducing the need to rely on foreign AI technology.
When looking at the supply chain concerns in the energy sector, we can see why Taiwan is hesitant to rely on outsiders for its AI needs. As a net importer of energy due to its limited domestic resources, Taiwan is forced to play defence in this sector. In a conflict with China, Taiwan can see its maritime oil, natural gas, and coal imports cut off, which would cripple the island’s industrial base and subject it to price fluctuations. Even in peacetime, this vulnerability leaves Taiwanese politicians in the uncomfortable position of either allowing this risk to continue unmitigated, reversing the Democratic Progressive Party’s political promise to their voting base of ending Taiwan’s use of nuclear power, or investing heavily to help the struggling wind industry to meet domestic energy needs.
On the other hand, Taiwan is able to play offensively in the semiconductor space since it is home to an established, high-demand industry. A conflict with China would threaten any Taiwanese industry, but the island is able to use its current resources to secure its position by diversifying abroad. For example, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a leading chipmaker, is building advanced fabrication plants in Arizona and intends to build a semiconductor plant in Germany. This move reduces concentration in Taiwan and mitigates geopolitical risks and shocks caused by natural disasters by ensuring continuity of services, creating multiple points of failure in the supply chain, and ensuring access to critical markets.
Operating with these two understandings, we can see why Taiwan is hesitant to rely on foreign suppliers for its domestic AI needs, as well as its desire to invest early and build its AI export industry. As an early mover in this space, Taiwan is able to establish ethical frameworks around its maturing AI industry and contribute to the global discourse on international AI ethical standards.
TAIDE To Protect Taiwan’s National Security
As laid out in the book Unrestricted Warfare, China has been waging multi-front non-kinetic warfare to achieve military objectives. This type of warfare lies outside the established chain of military escalation. Taiwan, just like any industrialized country, has a lot to gain from integrating AI platforms into government, industrial base, and civil society. A major challenge in adopting foreign AI platforms for these purposes is that AI is not infallible and is subject to the biases presented in the datasets that the large language model was trained on. Foreign AI models will have incidental biases, while AI developed in China will have overt biases that serve the Chinese Communist Party’s political purposes.
Using Chinese-developed AI models will negatively impact Taiwan’s national security by giving the Chinese government the high ground to leverage technology in its information warfare in Taiwan. This information warfare will take the form of industrial espionage, cyber-attacks, and discourse competition.
Industrial espionage: AI integrated into Taiwanese businesses will be used to enhance existing programs of Chinese industrial espionage to steal intellectual property and trade secrets to build its own manufacturing base.
Cyber attacks: Chinese AI can parse large volumes of data and more easily detect cyber vulnerabilities in Taiwan’s government, industrial, and civil institutions. Cyber attacks can be leveraged in industrial espionage, denial of service attacks, and surveillance.
Discourse competition: Using AI trained in China will open Taiwanese society to biases, propaganda, and information distortions that are present in China but are not prominent in Taiwan’s open information society. Chinese AI will spread misinformation more widely and, create rifts in Taiwanese society and sow distrust between the Taiwanese population and government while fostering a positive view of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Taiwan can counter current and future information warfare from the CCP by developing an indigenous AI model based on a Taiwanese dataset. Taiwan’s AI industry is not designed to match China’s investments in AI but rather to meet Taiwan’s domestic needs and create an ethical framework that upholds Taiwan’s democratic values. TAIDE holds a comparative advantage over Chinese AI in that it is being developed in an open society with access to advanced Taiwanese semiconductors.
Conclusion
Taiwan’s move to develop its own AI capabilities through TAIDE represents a forward-thinking approach to national security, economic growth, and technological sovereignty. By investing in AI technology, Taiwan is not only aiming to reduce its reliance on external sources but also to protect itself from potential threats, particularly from China. The focus on developing native AI capabilities shows that Taiwan is committed to safeguarding its industrial secrets, securing its cyber infrastructure, and ensuring the integrity of its information spaces. By positioning itself as an exporter of AI technology, Taiwan is looking to reap substantial economic benefits while promoting its democratic values on the global stage as it seeks to shape international AI standards. As Taiwan continues to advance its AI capabilities, it sets an example for other nations on the importance of developing indigenous technological solutions to current economic and security challenges.
Where Can I Find TAIDE? 
TAIDE has only recently been released to the public, so information and use cases for TAIDE are expected to grow over time. Currently, you can access TAIDE at https://taide.tw/ and find additional information on GitHub and HuggingFace. We can expect TAIDE to become more user-friendly in the coming months, with a lean towards helping researchers and academics.
Ian Murphy has a background in national security and international business. He earned an MA in National Security Studies at American Military University. He received a Taiwan Scholarship to get a Global MBA at National Taiwan Normal University, with instruction in Mandarin. Ian currently works as a China Subject Matter Expert at SecuriFense Inc., where he helps organizations understand developments in China’s economy and foreign policy.
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