The Taiwan Democracy Foundation held an international forum on "AI Deliberation: Can AI Be the Leader of the Table?" today (10th). Foundation Chairman and Legislative Dean Han Kuo-yu said in his speech that following the debate between AI and humans held at the beginning of the year, an international forum will be held today to allow AI to play the role of "table leader" in the deliberative discussion process. He also humorously said that one of the jobs of the Legislative Yuan is to preside over meetings. How to get parties with different positions to seek common ground while shelving differences and negotiate for signatures is often an "impossible task." He looks forward to the performance of the AI desk leader. As for whether his job may be replaced by AI in the future, "let us wait and see."
Today's forum of the Democracy Foundation introduced AI as the "table leader" to lead the deliberation, with two roles: "Ruomao He" and "Ruomao Yin". It is worth noting that in the first session, the "Ruomao He" model, which talked with the Ambassador-at-Large of the Republic of China Tang Feng and demonstrated the model of presiding over the deliberation, actually used Tang Feng's voice as the basis for TTS.
In his speech, Hanguo-yu said that the Taiwan Democracy Foundation made a bold attempt at the beginning of this year to conduct an exciting debate on the topic of "whether artificial intelligence has more benefits than disadvantages for democratic governance", with anthropologists as the pros and AI as the naysayers. This forum foundation went a step further and allowed AI to play the role of "table leader" as a facilitator in the deliberation process, leading eight citizen group members to discuss the issue of "whether mobile phones can be used on campus." He pointed out that the AI desk leader must preside over the deliberations fairly and fairly, so that each participant feels respected and equal, and promptly sort out everyone's consensus and differences to make the discussion smoother and form meaningful conclusions and action plans.
Talking about the challenge of presiding over the meeting, Hanguo-yu said with emotion that as the legislative president, one of his core tasks is to preside over the meeting. However, when presiding over negotiations between the government and the opposition, how to make the parties with different positions and persistence seek common ground while reserving differences, and finally be willing to sign on the negotiation conclusions, often seems like an "impossible task." Therefore, he is very much looking forward to observing the actual performance of the AI desk leader when presiding over the deliberation today, and said with a smile, "Let's wait and see whether my job may be replaced by AI in the future."
Facing the wave of development and application of artificial intelligence, Han Guoyu believes that this is the general trend and is also a major challenge and opportunity that mankind must face. Quoting "Pessimists are always right, optimists always move forward," he pointed out that the Taiwan Democracy Foundation is obviously an optimist, trying to boldly innovate at all levels of democratic governance, introducing AI, and opening up more imagination and possibilities. He emphasized that success is certainly not something that can be achieved overnight, but as long as you are on the road ahead, you are not afraid of failure.
In his speech, Executive Vice Minister Ge Baoxuan, who attended on behalf of Foreign Minister Lin Jialong, said that in addition to continuing the discussion basis of "Artificial Intelligence and Democracy" in January this year, this forum also aims to promote the "Global Initiative for Local Democracy" (GILD) initiated by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and connect local governments, parliaments and city alliances around the world to prepare for the first GILD conference to be held in June next year. He pointed out that using AI to serve as both moderator and negotiator can not only ensure that a wide range of voices are heard, but also sort out complex arguments, resolve differences, strengthen democratic resilience, and make deliberative democracy more feasible in local governance.
Ge Baoxuan further emphasized that local governments are closest to the people. Therefore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is actively promoting "subnational diplomacy" (subnational diplomacy), hoping to move beyond traditional sister city exchanges to cooperation among local government alliances and introduce local innovation into the democratic value chain. This initiative coincides with the vision of "comprehensive diplomacy." Taiwan is willing to combine democratic values and technological advantages, share its experience in promoting citizen technology, promote partnerships between local governments, academia, and the technology industry, and serve as a key partner in the global democratic community.
