28 November 2025 governance / taiwan / applied intelligence / edge
Is your AI earning its energy? Taiwan has left me wondering.
Taiwan can't treat AI as abstract. It hosts the infrastructure, feels the weight of every training run on the grid, and is forcing the question most markets are avoiding: does the benefit justify the load?
Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse, 28 November 2025, following the opening keynote and panel I ran at the Taipei City Government’s Smart Living, Sustainable Future 2025 event.
The thesis is short. Most markets treat artificial intelligence as if it has no mass. Taiwan cannot. It manufactures the chips, hosts the infrastructure, and feels every training run on the same grid that keeps homes and hospitals running. That visceral relationship with the technology forces a different question. Not is it clever, not is it cutting edge, but does the benefit justify the load.
Standing on that stage, opening Democratising Intelligence for a Sustainable Future to a room of about 130 officials, investors, and founders, I came back to one line. The infrastructure is the easy part. The hard part is deciding who gets to use it, under what conditions, and with what responsibilities. That is the governance challenge Taiwan is tackling head on whilst many markets are still racing to build capacity. Taiwan is racing to build clarity.
I left with a question that has followed me home, and I am posing it to anyone in earshot.
Is your AI earning its energy?