AI regulation in Taiwan (2026)

Taiwan's Executive Yuan announced it will formally establish the National AI Strategy Special Committee, to be chaired by the Premier and tasked with setting the national AI development blueprint and coordinating AI governance across ministries. This is a mandatory implementation step under the January 2026 AI Basic Act.

President William Lai Ching-te signed the Artificial Intelligence Basic Act into law, making Taiwan one of the first Asian jurisdictions with a dedicated AI governance statute. The Act designates the NSTC as the central competent authority and imposes a 24-month deadline for all ministries to align subordinate regulations.

Taiwan's parliament completed the third reading of the AI Basic Act, enshrining seven core governance principles — sustainability, human autonomy, privacy, cybersecurity, transparency, fairness, and accountability — and designating NSTC as the national AI supervisory authority. The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) was separately tasked with developing an internationally aligned risk-classification framework.

The Legislative Yuan passed significant amendments to the PDPA — to take effect upon formal establishment of the independent Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) — updating enforcement powers, supervisory structures, and data-subject rights to meet constitutional requirements. These revisions directly govern how AI systems that process personal data must be designed and operated.

After extensive inter-agency review, the Cabinet cleared the draft Artificial Intelligence Basic Act and forwarded it to the Legislative Yuan, adopting a principles-based framework approach rather than sector-specific prohibitions. The approved draft consolidated competing DPP and KMT legislative proposals that had circulated since late 2024.

The National Science and Technology Council released its draft Artificial Intelligence Basic Act for public comment, kicking off an 18-month legislative process. The draft aligned with OECD AI Principles and proposed a risk-tiered regulatory model broadly analogous to the EU AI Act.

Taiwan established a dedicated AI Product and System Evaluation Center to develop testing methodologies and certify AI products against ethical and safety standards. The center provides the institutional infrastructure for future risk-based compliance envisioned in AI Action Plan 2.0.

Taiwan stood up the PDPC Preparatory Office following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling (J.Y. Interpretation No. 111-Hsien-Pan-13) mandating an independent data-protection supervisor. The Office assumed PDPA interpretation authority from the National Development Council on 1 January 2024, becoming the de facto regulator of personal data used in AI systems.

The Cabinet issued binding reference guidelines requiring government personnel to maintain human oversight when using generative AI tools, prohibiting cloud-based AI (e.g., ChatGPT) for classified or sensitive documents, and mandating accountable human review of all AI-assisted outputs. This was Taiwan's first formal generative-AI governance instrument.

The Executive Yuan approved the second multi-year national AI strategy, for the first time elevating AI ethics and legislation as explicit pillars and mandating the NSTC to draft a dedicated AI Basic Act. Simultaneously, the government launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) — a domestically developed large language model built on Llama incorporating Taiwanese language and values — to reduce dependence on foreign AI infrastructure.

The Executive Yuan rolled out Taiwan's first whole-of-government AI strategy, allocating NT$9–10 billion annually to build AI talent pipelines, university research centers, and industrial AI applications, with goals including training 33,000 professionals and opening a self-driving vehicle test site. This plan established AI as a strategic national priority and created the institutional and semiconductor-industry foundations underlying all subsequent AI policy.