The Ministry of Digital Affairs announced that, given the recent rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), it has become an official partner of the international non-governmental organization, the "Collective Intelligence Project" (CIP) today(25th), to ensure the alignment of its applications with the interests of the general public. This partnership aims to further create the necessary application services for society. The Ministry joined the "Alignment Assemblies" project, with the goal of assisting Taiwan in building consensus among the public regarding the needs and risks associated with artificial intelligence, and collectively addressing the "Alignment Problem" of AI. Starting in July of this year (2023), the ministry plans to shape the direction of AI development through Ideathons, using Taiwan as a demonstration field, and employing a model of citizen participation and deliberation.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs emphasized that the CIP is an international non-governmental organization advocating for technology that encompasses social development, industrial progress, and public trust. It believes that the development of artificial intelligence should prioritize ethics and the public interest. CIP's partners include OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, The GovLab at Northeastern University, Anthropic, an AI company, and GETTING-Plurality, a research think tank on diverse universes.
During the Democratic Summit in March of this year, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, led by Minister Audrey Tang, initiated this project in collaboration with CIP to shape a global consensus among people and ensure the alignment of artificial intelligence with human values. By joining this project, the ministry aims to promote digital democracy and global partnerships, while fostering a diverse and inclusive digital culture in Taiwan.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs stated that in July, it will launch the "Democratizing AI Futures" dialogue through Ideathons, inviting public participation. In August, it will organize deliberative workshops to discuss how to respond to the development of generative AI.
Minister Tang explained that artificial intelligence has brought profound social changes, and issues such as algorithms, intellectual property, technological ethics, public services, and social impact have attracted considerable attention, posing new challenges for democratic governance. In response to the social concerns arising from the generative AI trend, the Executive Yuan is actively working on the draft of the "Basic Law on Artificial Intelligence." The Ministry of Digital Affairs also expects that through the early demonstration of the Collective Intelligence Project, important information can be provided to policymakers and technology developers to ensure the alignment of AI development with the interests of the public.
CIP was jointly launched in August 2022 by Divya Siddarth, a social scientist from the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, and Saffron Huang, a former research engineer at Google DeepMind. Its operational goal is to empower everyone to influence the direction of AI development, and its mission is to enable meaningful participation by the general public in shaping the development of transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence.
