Shen Boyang went to Tokyo for a discussion: Talking about Taipei municipal administration, smoking area planning and AI coaching concept

(Central News Agency reporter Dai Yazhen, Tokyo, 13th) Democratic Progressive Party legislator Shen Boyang, who is involved in the Taipei mayoral election, held a symposium in Tokyo this evening to exchange views on Taipei municipal affairs with young people in Japan. Relaxed Q&A sessions are also arranged on site. When asked which restaurant he would choose if he had a meal with Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan, Shen Boyang laughed and said that his favorite ramen is "Ichiran, where two people sit across the partition", which caused the audience to laugh.

The organizer stated that this event attracted about a hundred people to participate, and the registration information was fully booked within an hour after it was online. From the opening of registration to the start of the event, almost every day people asked whether the quota would be cancelled, and hoped to participate on the standby list, which shows that young people in Japan are highly concerned about the event and related issues.

Shen Boyang said at the symposium that during his visit to Japan, he paid special attention to urban renewal and public space design in Tokyo. He noticed that Tokyo has renovated many railway viaducts into commercial, arts, exhibition and communication spaces. On the other hand, under Taipei Civic Avenue and Jianguo viaduct, some spaces are dark and have unclear uses, so they cannot be fully utilized.

Shen Boyang believes that the area under the Citizen Avenue viaduct can be planned as music, art, exhibition, youth exchange or special commercial space according to the characteristics of different sections. However, relevant planning cannot just add facilities sporadically, but should be considered together with the development of surrounding neighborhoods and traffic routes.

In addition, Shen Boyang also went to Shibuya in the morning with Kobe City Councilor Hirohiro Uehata from Taiwan to learn about the current management status of smoking areas in Japan. When it comes to planning smoking areas in Tokyo, he said that public policy must first understand the actual distribution of users. Smokers are not only concentrated in stations, but may also appear in office buildings, department stores and public institutions. If smoking rooms are only set up near large stations, it may not be able to meet the actual needs of different regions.

He pointed out that some department stores, public offices and railway viaducts in Tokyo have indoor smoking areas. Taipei should also incorporate relevant facilities into the overall design during the urban renewal or large-scale building development stages, rather than adding obtrusive smoking rooms on the sidewalks afterwards, which eventually "turn into an abomination."

In terms of artificial intelligence policy, Shen Boyang believes that AI is a revolutionary tool and an important direction for Taipei to attract young people and scientific and technological talents. However, the government’s current common practice is to require civil servants to take AI courses, which not only fails to solve practical work problems, but may also increase the burden on grassroots staff.

Citing his past experience at Academia Sinica as an example, he pointed out that when statistical methods become increasingly important, every researcher is not required to become a statistical expert, but professional statisticians are arranged to work together with the research team. The same concept should be adopted when AI is introduced into municipal administration and industry.

Therefore, Shen Boyang proposed the idea of ​​"AI coaching". The city government would arrange AI professionals to enter different bureaus, industries or business districts to actually understand the work process, find out the links suitable for introducing AI, and then bring the needs back to city-level think tanks to develop tools.

He emphasized that we should not wait for all civil servants and industry players to learn AI, but rather allow talents familiar with AI to enter the scene and help all walks of life find truly useful applications.

A quick question and answer session was arranged at the end of the symposium. Faced with questions such as "MRT or motorcycle", "YouBike or walking", Shen Boyang did not hesitate to choose MRT or YouBike; between Xiangshan and Yangmingshan, he chose Yangmingshan because there was his favorite chicken restaurant on the mountain. When asked if he could place a snack in the mayor's office, he said small puffs, chocolate or coffee flavors would be fine.

When asked if he would dare to go if he was elected mayor of Taipei and China invited him to participate in the Twin Cities Forum, Shen Boyang replied "dare to go", but emphasized that he advocated "capital to capital", so the exchange target should be Beijing.

He also joked that China might change his name by then, changing "博" to "白" next to the wooden character, just like the Chinese translation of Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State who was once sanctioned by China, and his Chinese translation was once changed from "Rubio" to "Rubio" by the Chinese government.

When the host asked which restaurant he would choose if he had a dinner date with Jiang Wanan, Shen Boyang first said that he "can eat anything", and then revealed that his favorite food is ramen, and said with a smile: "The best is Ichiran, two people sitting across the partition." The humorous answer once again triggered laughter on the scene. (Editor: Wei Shu)