Dina Temple-Raston
Taiwan’s first-ever minister of digital affairs, Audrey Tang, told an audience at the Munich Cyber Security Conference on Friday that the island nation is using AI to battle disinformation on social media. She said that the technology is helping officials pre-bunk Chinese influence operations targeting the island before they spread online.
Taiwan’s National Security Bureau said the number of pieces of false or biased information distributed by China increased 60% in 2024, to 2.16 million from 1.33 million in 2023. According to a report released last month, the NSB said Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, were the main conduits for disinformation, along with platforms that explicitly target young people such as TikToK.
In response to these efforts, Tang launched what she called the "Alignment Assemblies" project two years ago, using open-source AI software to convene meetings of ordinary citizens to talk about dis- and mis-information. Tang served as minister of digital affairs from August 2022 to May 2024, and currently serves as the country’s ambassador-at-large.
“The Taiwan government sent 200,000 SMS invitations to random people in Taiwan asking them ‘How do you feel about information integrity?’” Tang said. “We brought them together and used AI to surface what they were worried about.”
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