After three years, the National AI Team shines

Sponsored and promoted by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the NCHC joined ASUS, Quanta Computer, and Taiwan Mobile to build Taiwania 2 Supercomputer and Taiwan Computing Cloud (TWCC). It's been three years since they went live, and they have helped solve many scientific, research, and commercial problems. To help lead the nation's industrial upgrade, on May 15, 2020, the National AI Team, with members coming from government and industries, gathered together again. NARLabs President Wang Yeong-Her, NCHC Director General Shepherd Shi, ASUS Chairman Johnny Shih, Quanta Computer Chairman Barry Lam, and Taiwan Mobile Chairman Daniel M. Tsai jointly announced that they would continue their collaboration in technology and service to industries, extend their achievements in scientific research, establish a perpetual operating model and examples of success, and build the ecosystem for the AI industry in Taiwan. Ministry of Science and Technology Minister Chen Liang-Gee and Deputy Minister Hsu Yu-Chin graced the gathering with their presence.

The National AI Team, from left, NARLabs Chairperson Wang Yeong-Her, Taiwan Mobile Chairman Daniel M. Tsai, MOST Deputy Minister Hsu Yu-Chin, MOST Minister Chen Liang-Gee, Quanta Computer Chairman Barry Lam, ASUS Chairman Johnny Shih, and NCHC Director General Shepherd Shi.

TWCC is a paragon of the success stories that have resulted from the efforts of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program of the nation to promote scientific research. A collaboration among industrial, governmental, academic, and research organizations in Taiwan produced Taiwania 2, in 2018 ranked 20th among the world's supercomputers and 10th in terms of energy efficiency, which is a historic accomplishment. This has also enabled TWCC to offer huge computing power with 40% better efficiency and cross-node support of parallel computing with a 30% improvement. Since its commercialization, TWCC has supported more than 350 projects from industrial, academic, and research organizations, of which industrial entities accounted for about 30%. So far, TWCC has provided ten million hours of GPU computation, shrunken AI training time by 90%, and raised deep learning efficiency by 498 times, all showing its superior utility.

Minister Chen Liang-Gee of the Ministry of Science and Technology indicated that the collaboration between the government and industries offers the best lineup for Taiwan to compete in the global competition of AI development. The government is delighted to see that the NCHC, ASUS, Quanta, and Taiwan Mobile would engage in further technological transfers and deepening their services. He believed that this collaboration would make even bigger contributions to AI, the cloud, and the sustainable ecosystem for AI industries in Taiwan.

Chairman Barry Lam of Quanta Computer pointed out that the world had entered the great era when 5G, AI, the Cloud, and IoT all converge that would bring about innovation and the fourth industrial revolution. “Quanta wants to be the tool that facilitates this big convergence” that would accelerate the breakthrough and widespread application of emerging technologies. Quanta would also continue to invest in the development of AI tools and solutions so that it would play the key role of an enabler in the global AI competition.

ASUS Chairman Johnny Shih pointed out that the world was facing unprecedented challenges, forcing us to rethink our values and our views on politics, economy, and technology. God seemed to have extended a magical hand to fully support and advance the digital transformation and the completion of AIoT and Internet of Beings (IoB), including the complete framework of Cyber Physical System and Digital Twin so as to build a new digital economy that would truly center around people. ASUS had engaged in Cloud software and field applications for over a decade, accumulating expertise in the Cloud, IoT, and AI. He was happy to join his fellow tech leaders on the national team to construct the AI Cloud platform—the early results of which had been displayed—and to promote the digital transformation for industrial, governmental, academic, and research organizations as well as for new businesses in Taiwan. He hoped that the team's efforts would catapult Taiwan to the front of the pack in the global competition of new digital technologies and new digital economy.

Taiwan Mobile Chairman Daniel M. Tsai pointed out that this wave of the coronavirus pandemic had reminded us that all major industries in the world would face an urgency of digital transformation, placing utterly heavy responsibilities on our shoulders. Particularly, as 5G would officially start commercialization this year, such 5G traits as high band widths, low latency, broad connectivity coupled with AI would make intelligent living possible. The technological environment of Industrial 4.0 would exhibit the key values of big data and AI and use 5G as an accelerator to connect to “A.B.C.”, meaning AI, Big Data, and Cloud, to open new possibilities for the innovation of industries in Taiwan.

Shepherd Shi, Director General of the NCHC, indicated that TWCC could be the platform that could connect energy from many quarters, strengthen its capacity to serve industries, and provide better service to industries. The NCHC looks forward to collaborating with these three big enterprises again to substantiate TWCC's technologies and services, expand the transformation of technology industries in Taiwan, and jointly lead the industrial upgrade.