Leaders of other countries

Audrey Tang

Taiwan's cyber ambassador; Taiwan's first digital affairs minister

6 records

Portrait source: Camille McOuat, CC BY 2.0

Records

This is where AI could make things much worse. It can generate persuasive content at volume, tailor emotional cues, simulate consensus and flood every channel with synthetic certainty. If deployed inside the old logic of the feed, it will turn existing polarization into a perpetual engine for schismogenesis.

Audrey Tang

Taiwan's cyber ambassador; Taiwan's first digital affairs minister

In a July 2026 essay, Audrey Tang wrote that AI could make online polarization much worse by generating persuasive content at volume, tailoring emotional cues, simulating consensus and flooding every channel with synthetic certainty, and that deployed inside the old logic of the feed it will turn existing polarization into a perpetual engine.

Taiwan's cyber-ambassadorPublished July 15, 2026 · date of remarks not establishedSigned essay, the Humanist Review, Issue 01 (People & Technology)

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Context and checks

Surrounding words

They adopt them because the social machinery around those beliefs moves faster than reflection can keep up. By the time a rumor is challenged, a group identity may already have formed around it. This is where AI could make things much worse. It can generate persuasive content at volume, tailor emotional cues, simulate consensus and flood every channel with synthetic certainty. If deployed inside the old logic of the feed, it will turn existing polarization into a perpetual engine for schismogenesis. But AI can also be used to counter that logic. It can annotate before outrage calcifies. It can translate between communities where moral languages differ even when practical hopes overlap.

What this quote does not say

The passage predicts an effect if AI is deployed within the existing feed architecture; it does not claim that every AI deployment has this effect.
The term schismogenesis is not defined in the selected passage, although the surrounding section describes polarization and conflict escalation.

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My P(Doom) is NaN, or Not A Number, and here’s why. If you think of risk as capability divided by visibility, the story looks simple, right? The numerator is climbing fast. Everyone sees it climb. But visibility, for the dominant architecture, attention transformer, we can measure some of the internals, but we cannot reliably interpret them, and because of this, when we ask, “How dangerous is this?”

Exact quote, beginning

Audrey Tang

Taiwan's cyber ambassador; Taiwan's first digital affairs minister

Asked on a January 2026 podcast for her P(Doom), Audrey Tang said it is NaN — not a number — because the internals of the dominant AI architecture cannot be reliably interpreted, leaving the estimate flat from zero to one hundred percent, and said the calculation does not converge without real interpretability.

Taiwan's ambassador at large for cyberspace governancePublished January 20, 2026 · date of remarks not establishedTaiwan's Cyber Ambassador-At-Large Says Humans & AI Can FOOM Together

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Audrey 0:17:23 Of course. P(Doom). P(Doom), what’s your P(Doom)? What’s your P(Doom)? What’s your P(Doom)? Liron 0:17:31 Audrey Tang, what’s your P(Doom)? Audrey 0:17:34 My P(Doom) is NaN, or Not A Number, and here’s why. If you think of risk as capability divided by visibility, the story looks simple, right? The numerator is climbing fast. Everyone sees it climb. But visibility, for the dominant architecture, attention transformer, we can measure some of the internals, but we cannot reliably interpret them, and because of this, when we ask, “How dangerous is this?” we’re trying to compute a value where the inspection term is missing, like dividing by zero or something. But of course, if you’re a Bayesian, like Eliezer, you would say probability is never undefined. It’s never not a number. Just give me a prior, and I’ll give you a posterior. But if the likelihood function is broken, it literally looks like a flat line, right? It covers the entire board. It is from zero percent to one hundred percent. We’re flying blind. We don’t know. So the mean, I guess, is fifty percent, but it’s cosmetic. The interval is the message. The calculation simply does not converge unless you have real interpretability. Liron 0:18:37 Okay, well, let me see if I can try to convince you a little bit that there should be some kind of thing you can say about P(Doom) more than NaN.

What this quote does not say

NaN is a refusal to supply a usable probability estimate, not a numerical probability estimate.
The direct audio was exposed through the publisher and Apple players, but the timestamp was not independently waveform-checked.

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Quote located in the captured page; spacing normalised for display.

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For high-impact AI, democracies should require decision traces, independent audits, accessible appeals, public incident reporting, worker and community co-governance, sunset clauses and procurement rules that avoid lock-in.

Audrey Tang

Taiwan's cyber ambassador; Taiwan's first digital affairs minister

In April 2026 testimony to Canada’s Senate human rights committee, Audrey Tang said democracies should require decision traces, independent audits, accessible appeals, public incident reporting, worker and community co-governance, sunset clauses and procurement rules that avoid lock-in for high-impact AI.

Taiwan Cyber Ambassador, appearing as an individualApril 27, 2026Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights evidence hearing

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Is someone named and accountable? Does the system work in context? Do those affected have recourse? Does it build solidarity rather than vendor lock-in? And does it know when to stop? For high-impact AI, democracies should require decision traces, independent audits, accessible appeals, public incident reporting, worker and community co-governance, sunset clauses and procurement rules that avoid lock-in. A democratic system must be interruptible, possible to pause, override or retire without disrupting essential services people depend on. Inclusive prosperity is also democratic security.

What this quote does not say

The selected sentence does not define the threshold for high-impact AI.

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Quote matched character-for-character against the captured page.

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Statements they signed

FROM THE SIGNED STATEMENT

Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.

Signed statement: “Statement on AI Extinction Risk” (CAIS)

Audrey Tang

Taiwan's cyber ambassador; Taiwan's first digital affairs minister

Signed as part of a group statement. Not spoken.

Audrey Tang signed the Statement on AI Extinction Risk, which said reducing the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war.

Digitalminister.tw and Chair of National Institute of Cyber SecurityDate not establishedStatement on AI Extinction Risk

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Robock Distinguished Professor of Climate Science, Rutgers University Other Notable Figures Angela Kane Vice President, International Institute for Peace, Vienna; former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Other Notable Figures Audrey Tang Digitalminister.tw and Chair of National Institute of Cyber Security Other Notable Figures Daniela Amodei President, Anthropic Other Notable Figures David Silver Professor of Computer Science, Google DeepMind and UCL AI Scientists Lila

What this quote does not say

Roster observed 2026-08-19; signing date unknown.
The role is copied from the roster's wording: 'Digitalminister.tw and Chair of National Institute of Cyber Security'.

How this was checked

The organiser's own roster lists this person as a signer.

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FROM THE SIGNED STATEMENT

Like drugs, chatbots must undergo pre-deployment testing for increased suicidal ideation, exacerbation of mental health disorders, escalation of acute crisis situations, and other known harms.

Signed statement: “Pro-Human AI Declaration” (FLI/broad coalition)

Audrey Tang

Taiwan's cyber ambassador; Taiwan's first digital affairs minister

Signed as part of a group statement. Not spoken.

Audrey Tang was listed as a signer of the Pro-Human AI Declaration, which said humans must remain in control of AI and called for safety rules and oversight.

Cyber Ambassador, TaiwanDate not establishedPro-Human AI Declaration

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Surrounding words

Megan Garcia Blessed Mother Family Foundation Joann Bogard Parents SOS Michael Toscano Director, Family First Technology Initiative, Senior Fellow, Institute for Family Studies Audrey Tang Cyber Ambassador, Taiwan Mike Kubzansky CEO, Omidyar Network, Professor of Computational Engineering, Rice University, Member: US National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences Tomicah Tillemann President, Project

What this quote does not say

Roster observed 2026-08-19; signing date unknown.
The role is copied from the roster's wording: 'Cyber Ambassador, Taiwan'.

How this was checked

The organiser's own roster lists this person as a signer.

Reviewed by

an AI reviewer that read the whole source

FROM THE SIGNED STATEMENT

When it comes to AI safety and security, openness is an antidote, not a poison.

Signed statement: “Joint Statement on AI Safety and Openness” (Mozilla)

Audrey Tang

Taiwan's cyber ambassador; Taiwan's first digital affairs minister

Signed as part of a group statement. Not spoken.

Audrey Tang was listed as a signer of the Joint Statement on AI Safety and Openness, which said open, responsible, and transparent approaches are critical to AI safety and security.

Minister of Digital Affairs, TaiwanDate not establishedJoint Statement on AI Safety and Openness

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Surrounding words

Chaumond, Hugging Face - Brian Behlendorf, Linux Foundation - Eric Von Hippel, MIT Sloan School of Business - Moez Draief, Mozilla.ai - Pelonomi Moiloa, LelapaAI - Philippe Beaudoin, Waverly - Raffi Krikorian, Technically Optimistic - Audrey Tang, Minister of Digital Affairs, Taiwan - Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia Foundation - Krishna Gade, Fiddler AI - John Borthwick, Betaworks - Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School - Stefano Maffulli, Open Source Initiative - Arvind Narayanan,

What this quote does not say

Roster observed 2026-08-19; signing date unknown.
The role is copied from the roster's wording: 'Minister of Digital Affairs, Taiwan'.

How this was checked

The organiser's own roster lists this person as a signer.

Reviewed by

an AI reviewer that read the whole source