Deputy Digital Minister Lin Yi-jing (林宜敬) called on the public to support high-quality media and news, both as a matter of fairness and justice and as a cornerstone of a free democratic world.
Friday was the second Demo Day, which showed the first-year results of the 2023 Taiwan News Digital Co-Prosperity Fund project, launched by Google. The program pledged to provide NT$100 million (about US$3.05 million) in annual assistance to Taiwan’s news-related industries with the goal of supporting the “transformation, development, and sustainability of the news industry."
Deputy Culture Minister Lee Ching-hwi (李靜慧) explained at a press conference that she is working hard to convince creators to use their content, text, images, and videos to train a sovereign AI. While this has raised questions about what a Taiwan identity would look like through an AI lens, it seems more like an unavoidable issue as the progress of AI continues, and discussions of media pricing have yet to yield progress.
Lin maintains that media pricing remains the general consensus. That being said, many news media outlets have struggled, as the two main sources of income– reader subscriptions and advertising– yield less and less profit. She says the power of the people’s support is pivotal, pointing to independent news organizations as a cornerstone of a free democratic society. Especially in the face of daily misinformation attacks, Lin says that ensuring the survival of reliable and trustworthy news sources is one of the best defenses.
At the event, the online news media group ETtoday demonstrated their “information-based fast news generator” at the results presentation which uses information directly from credible official sources such as the Central Weather Administration (CWA), and the Transportation Ministry, to quickly produce new reports on things such as earthquakes, weather, and stocks. Generated news lists the data source, such as “Source: CWA”, to garner readers’ trust. Reports show that the generator improves efficiency and decreases the error rate of news produced when compared to manual writing. Practically speaking, they say the application of such a generator would free up journalists to dedicate more time to interviews, and in-depth reporting.