Taiwan has developed a strong heritage of hardware and software integration since the past 3 decades. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) ranked on the top 10 world-leading technology companies by Thomson Reauters Corp. Foxconn is also, the world’s largest multinational electronics manufacturing company by manufacturing chips for Apple, Google and etc. By building on its economics, Taipei City stands a good chance to develop a globally competitive start-up ecosystem in AI, software, and semi-conductor.
In Taiwan, the artificial intelligence technology is widely used in intelligence manufacturing, E-commerce, and virtual reality, it has become a niche industry. In recent years, the startup team has been moving forward to AI technology by developing ICT, finance industry through problem-solving and system upgrading.
Besides, the Taiwan government had various programs to train AI talents. In 2018, Pervasive AI Research (PAIR) was launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) in the hopes of integrating AI technology into people’s lives, work, and leisure in the most human way. PAIR’s mission is to extract the application know-how while utilizing AI technologies to resolve the issues of diverse industries by developing the international AI expertise and leading position through service and information sharing in order to establish the international AI research center.
Google launched “Intelligent Taiwan”, this program aims to nurture AI talents through reinforcement learning and recommendations systems for medical capturing deep learning solution. During May 2018, Taiwan launched 3 AI seminars collaborated with Google, the seminars focused on Machine Learning Crash Course which had attracted more than 180 professionals and professors to attend this seminar. The software firm Microsoft announced to pick Taiwan to grow its artificial intelligence business, it would expect to have 34 million Taiwan R&D.

• The Development

Taiwan has been a leading manufacturer of electronic components since the 1990s. Its economy remains reliant on an industry that is led by the world’s largest contract electronic chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which supplies technology companies such as Apple and Huawei and contributed more than 4% to the region’s gross domestic product in 2018.
However, the growth of consumer electronics has slowed across the world in the past few years: many people already have smartphones, and so fewer are being bought. In 2016, Taiwan’s newly inaugurated president, Tsai Ing-wen, announced that the government would promote a new model of economic development. The idea was to encourage local technology firms to diversify their products and to become more innovative and self-sufficient to boost technology ties with the United States and Japan.
When Taiwanese manufacturers began moving factories to mainland China in the 2000s, it harmed the development of smart manufacturing technology on the island, explains Stephen Su, who runs a centre at Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a government-funded research and development centre in Hsinchu. The institute, founded in 1973, has acted as an incubator for several Taiwanese companies, including the TSMC.
Now the government is “pouring resources” into smart manufacturing “because it’s the future of production”, Su says.
A conventional moving assembly line — many people using tools to complete small tasks in a much larger, complex process — was pioneered by Henry Ford to manufacture automobiles in the United States in 1913. Invented at the end of the ‘second industrial revolution’ that saw the global spread of technologies such as electrical power, the assembly line is still used in many factories today, says Chien.
Machines have largely replaced workers since the advent of the computer age, which saw a third revolution in industry involving robotics and greater automation. The next development, known as the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0, will use advances in cyber-physical systems, such as optical-fibre sensors on machines. These will collect and exchange data that can be processed by big-data analytics and AI technologies, enabling manufacturers to make flexible decisions about how they operate and to allocate resources efficiently to empower smart production. Taiwan is betting that the products of the future will be made by such intelligent machinery.
Companies around the world are similarly re-evaluating where and how they make their products, says Jason Ho, general manager of Avectec in Zhubei City near Hsinchu, which offers conventional manufacturers a software platform to help create smart factories. In these, networked machines can detect their own faults, work more efficiently and reduce production costs.
 

• Talents of Human Resource

Now that Taiwan is remaking itself as a destination for the next generation of manufacturers, there’s one thing it requires more of: talent. It is in urgent need of experienced engineers, both to design smart manufacturing technologies and to create the high-tech products of the future. “We must invest in our scientists and engineers. There are many countries in southeast Asia that are also becoming more sophisticated in terms of manufacturing, and to stay competitive, it’s important to make investments in education,” says Su. Taiwan’s government has acknowledged the severity of its talent deficit, and in 2018 passed legislation to help recruit and attract foreign professionals to work in Taiwan. Measures include the introduction of an employment gold card, a type of visa that entitles the holder to tax breaks, pension contributions and flexible residency options for family members. Of the 500 cards that were issued by the end of November 2019, just under one-fifth went to specialists in science and technology.
Su also points to the 2018 launch of an industry-funded organization called the Taiwan AI Academy, which started as one of the 11 project teams at the AIMS centre. It now has four campuses across Taiwan and runs 12-week courses for technical professionals or business managers working in the field who want to sharpen their skills. “Smart manufacturing with AI applications is one focus for the training curriculum,” Su says. “Many large manufacturing conglomerates such as AUO, MediaTek and the Formosa Plastics Group have sent their engineers and managers there.” (The academy lists these firms as sponsors on its website.)
After years of dedication by the public and private sectors toward developing technological expertise, Taiwan’s science parks are now home to clusters of companies pursuing breakthroughs in fields such as biotechnology, personal computing and peripherals, integrated circuits, nanotechnology, optoelectronics, precision machinery and telecommunications.
 
 
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