Good local time. I am Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s cyber ambassador, first digital minister and architect of the Taiwan Model of digital democracy. It is a tremendous honor and a privilege to participate in the prestigious and impactful Victoria Forum.
We are gathering at a time when realizing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals is proving more challenging than ever before, and many feel a deep anxiety about the state of democracy. We see polarization intensifying, and the digital tools we use often seem to exacerbate these divides.
But amid this sea of adversity is Taiwan: an island of resilience upon which the promise of new possibilities and a sense of calm empowerment rule OK. I will share elements of my vision and approaches that are helping us free the future on the front line of democracy — together.
We tend to think of democratic infrastructure as a kind of bedrock, stable and solid, but also slow to change. And we often view conflict as a destructive force threatening this stability.
But what if we change our perspective? What if we view infrastructure not as bedrock, but as a way to navigate change in an anti-fragile way? And what if we see conflict — those intergenerational or urban-rural divides — not as a threat, but as fuel for cooperation?
The challenge is that many platforms, what I call antisocial networks, are designed to maximize engagement through enragement. They transform that energy into volcanic moments.
What we need is a way to depower our tech-tectonic plates and empower civic care.
In Taiwan, an island formed by 4 million years of plate moving against plate, we focus on building bridging systems. In conducting large scale civic deliberation, we deploy tools like Polis, where there is no reply button. Attacks on others are impossible. Instead, the algorithm amplifies not the most divisive voices, but the statements that successfully bridge the divide — those earning support from otherwise opposed groups.
This turns polarization into Plurality — collaborative diversity. It turns a volcanic explosion back into safe, positive and productive energy.
So, where does AI fit in the scheme of things? When discussing AI, people often talk about hitting the brakes in fear, or pressing the accelerator to the floor. Both views miss the most crucial component: the steering wheel.
The landscape is shifting dramatically toward democratic AI. These are open-source, decentralized and crucially, locally aligned models.
This is a game-changer. It means any community — a city in British Columbia, a U.S. state like California or a central government ministry in Taiwan — can take these open models and tune them to unique definitions of fairness and accountability, very affordably. We are building AI not to replace human judgment, but to augment our collective wisdom.
The ambition must be to institutionalize this spirit. Democracy can be fast, fair and fun. We do not have to choose.
As the late, great Canadian Leonard Cohen wrote: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Let us use these tools, as well as the power of co-creation, innovation and openness to let the light in.
Thank you for the kind and generous attention. May we have a successful and value-added Victoria Forum. Live long and … prosper!