Kaohsiung City Councilor Kuo Chien-meng conducted a first-of-its-kind experiment during a council hearing by utilizing an AI chatbot to ask questions to the city’s mayor about Taiwan’s aging population and declining birthrate. The AI program used by Kuo, ChatGPT, generated a response of almost 1,000 words in just 30 seconds. The response detailed how 14.4 elementary schools are closed on average per year in Taiwan and urged Mayor Chen Chi-mai to implement strategic policies to address the issue, such as improving access to childcare and implementing programs that enhance work-life balance for families. The mayor responded by highlighting his administration’s family-friendly policies, such as subsidized taxi rides for expectant mothers traveling to maternity check-ups and using vacant house tax revenues to provide rent subsidies.
The Ministry of the Interior reported that by the end of 2022, Taiwan’s population had decreased by 0.47% to 23.26 million, driven by its lowest-ever annual number of births and highest-ever annual number of deaths. The mayor supported the expansion of childcare benefits for children aged 0-6 and suggested that population-related policies should be an important consideration for all presidential candidates in Taiwan.
