President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) spoke at the 2024 Taipei International Computer Show (COMPUTEX) convention opening this Tuesday, defining three major commitments to move Taiwan towards becoming an “AI island.”
Lai said the government will ensure a stable power supply, provide diversified green electricity, and establish a national data center. He said supercomputers may also be built for industrial, governmental, academic, and research purposes.
COMPUTEX 2024 Co-organizer and Taipei Computer Association (TCA) Chairman Paul Peng (彭双浪) discussed AI computing, green energy, and manpower as parts of the foundation for global development in his speech. Peng said learning how to balance and map out the future of AI in the face of global instability, climate change, information security, and increasingly stringent regulations regarding carbon emissions will inevitably be a challenge.
Peng also mentioned Taiwan’s progress in the field of computing power. He called on the government to re-examine the energy policy to ensure the durability and stability of the power system.
Lai thanked Nvidia Founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) for designating Taiwan as the construction location for two of their four new supercomputers: Taiwania 4 and Taipei-1. Lai also thanked TSMC for shouldering the relevant annual operating costs.
Lai encouraged businesses to continue investing in Taiwan, developing innovative applications, and assisting Taiwan’s small- and medium-sized AI enterprises to help actualize the AI island goal, which Lai says is beneficial to Taiwan’s economic development.