Lin Hsien-ming: Taiwan Must Transform from Hardware Manufacturing Mindset to AI Application Powerhouse

(CNA) Taipei, July 2 -- Wistron Chairman Lin Hsien-ming said today that facing the challenge of a declining birthrate, Taiwan's future economy and prosperity will not be created by quantity but by quality. The advent of the AI era is the best opportunity to enhance the quality of talent, and Taiwan's industries must transform from the past "hardware manufacturing" mindset to become an "AI application" powerhouse.

Speaking at the Wistron AI Talent Forum today, Lin Hsien-ming revealed that Wistron internally "pressures" engineers to make good use of the computing power the company has established, having already spent 6 billion tokens (the smallest unit of AI computation) in two months.

Although AI creation still faces many disputes in terms of legality and IP (intellectual property) recognition, Lin Hsien-ming believes that we cannot stop moving forward just because there are disputes. We must "learn and adjust as we go" to establish rules after using it.

To encourage external use of AI computing power, Wistron initially donated 1 million hours of computing power, and has since increased it to 2.7 million hours. Lin Hsien-ming frankly stated that they have indeed seen very good results, because "the more skilled people are, the deeper they use it, and the greater the results will be."

He said that as AI enhances the quality of talent, tasks that previously required 100 people can now be completed by 10 or even 4 or 5 people. This will not only address the "gap" caused by the declining birthrate and insufficient talent pool but also create value of different levels and qualities.

Lin Hsien-ming analyzed the historical development context, from the personal computer (PC) era, smartphones, the internet revolution, cloud computing, to the current AI era, each stage has different talent requirements, and the core of industrial and technological transformation has always been the continuation and growth of talent.

He admitted that Taiwan's past advantages were gained through hard work. "People say we are workaholics." Before we stood up, if we had wanted to enjoy a 36-hour work week like developed countries, "we would have been crushed long ago."

However, facing future international competition, Lin Hsien-ming stated that we cannot use old thinking. "Relying entirely on this kind of effort and manpower approach may not work in the next wave."

He called on Taiwan to transform its hardware manufacturing mindset into an application mindset, learn to make good use of technologies like AI, enable Taiwan to grasp a different level of competitiveness, and thereby transform and elevate Taiwan's value chain in the global landscape. (Editor: Chang Chun-mao) 1150702

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