Taipei:The Legislative Yuan in Taiwan has used artificial intelligence (AI) to audibly read proposed legislation for the first time. This historic event took place on Wednesday during a session of the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
According to Focus Taiwan, lawmakers utilized AI to read aloud 15 versions of proposed amendments to the Dementia Basic Act. This process is a standard procedure prior to the review of the bill. Initially, the AI read the proposals at 1.5 times the normal speed for 10 minutes. After confirming that legislators could follow along without difficulty, the speed was increased to twice the normal rate, completing the reading in 70 minutes. Committee chair Chen Ching-hui noted that legislative staff would have taken approximately two hours and 11 minutes to accomplish the same task.
Chen, who represents the Kuomintang (KMT), expressed hope that this initial use of AI could lead to wider integration of such technology in legislative processes. The idea to implement AI came after an incident where Chen lost her voice and used an AI-generated version of her voice in a plenary session in 2024 to question Premier Cho Jung-tai.
Additionally, Chen mentioned that Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu has been supportive of AI integration, prompting the establishment of a task force to explore its applications in the legislative context. Prior to the meeting, the committee collaborated with the Legislature's Information Technology Department to test and ensure the accuracy of the AI reading.
