TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taichung, Taiwan's industrial heartland, is positioning itself as the global center for "physical AI." The city is betting on robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles — machines that can be touched and seen. City leaders say this sector could become the island's next "sacred mountains of national protection."
In an exclusive interview with TVBS, Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Tunghai University (東海大學) President Chang Kuo-en (張國恩) outlined their vision for transforming Taiwan's third-largest city into a manufacturing hub for AI that exists in the physical world, not just on screens.
"We want to build two sacred mountains," Lu said, her voice steady with conviction. "One is unmanned vehicles and drones. The second is robots."
The term "sacred mountain" (護國神山) carries existential weight in Taiwan. It is typically reserved for industries so vital that their survival is inseparable from the island's own. For decades, that designation belonged almost exclusively to semiconductor giant TSMC (台積電).
The city's confidence rests on its manufacturing DNA. Taichung and the surrounding region account for roughly 70 percent of Taiwan's precision machinery industry, according to city government figures. The supply chain includes TSMC and Micron (美光) semiconductor factories. It extends to optics giant Largan Precision (大立光), carbon fiber, aerospace components, and machine tools.
"The first reason is that we have a strong industrial foundation," Lu added. "We have chips, semiconductors, and integrated circuits. We have optics. We also have environmental machinery and precision machinery."
Chang, an electrical engineering Ph.D. who has emerged as one of Taiwan's leading voices on AI education, framed the opportunity in stark terms.
"Without these industries, forget about drones, forget about robots, even autonomous vehicles — we couldn't do any of it," Chang explained. "We would have a brain but no limbs, no application."
The region also hosts 17 universities, providing a pipeline of talent that both leaders described as essential to the transformation.
Chang argued that the AI era demands a fundamental rethinking of higher education. At Tunghai, he has opened the campus to industry partners who now help design curricula and train students alongside faculty.
"Industry should enter the campus and work with the university to jointly cultivate the talent they need," Chang explained. "The university's walls must be broken down, and we must open our minds to respect professionals from different fields entering the school to cultivate different kinds of talent."
AI in City Governance: Robot Nurses and Autonomous Buses
The city government is also transforming its own operations. Taichung's 1999 citizen hotline — a 24-hour service that fields resident inquiries — will soon be powered by AI. The systems can handle initial questions and route complex cases to human supervisors.
"Our staff won't be doing labor work anymore," Lu said. "Instead, they will transition to management work, becoming supervisors. This is how the government uses AI in governance."
For disaster response, AI systems will analyze data during typhoons. They will recommend police deployments, fire truck positioning, and infrastructure vulnerabilities. These decisions previously relied entirely on human judgment.
The transformation is already visible in some settings. At Taichung Municipal Hospital (台中市立醫院), pink robot nurses now patrol the corridors. The hospital opened under management by China Medical University Hospital (中國醫藥大學附設醫院). The robots check on patients and remind them to take their medication.
Lu noted that children who once arrived at the hospital anxious now eagerly line up to interact with the machines. "It's more accurate than human memory and prevents our medical staff from being overworked," she said.
Meanwhile, autonomous bus trials with Feng Chia University (逢甲大學) are already operating in limited areas. The tests examine whether driverless vehicles can navigate roads and handle the complexities of public transit.
Forum to Showcase Ambitions: Global Competition and Taiwan's Future
Both leaders pointed to the upcoming "2026 Smart Taichung AI Robot Forum" on Wednesday (Aug. 26) as a milestone. The event will feature Phison Electronics (群聯電子) founder Pua Khein-Seng (潘健成). Foxconn (鴻海) executive Yang Qiu-jin (楊秋瑾) will also speak.
The city has attracted 370 approved investment cases under the "Invest Taiwan" program as of June. That figure is the highest of any city nationally, according to city government data.
The stakes extend far beyond Taichung. Taiwan has long relied on its semiconductor dominance as both economic engine and security guarantee — the "silicon shield" that makes the island indispensable to global supply chains. But as the United States, Europe, Japan, and China race to build their own chip-making capacity, that advantage may erode.
"Taichung will seize the AI opportunity," Lu continued. "We will not only be Taiwan's AI stronghold, but the world's most important base for AI production and R&D. We're talking about global competition."
Chang framed the challenge in educational terms. "AI is truly an education revolution," he said. "But revolution is a goal, and reform is the means. We hope to use educational reform to achieve the education revolution that AI is bringing."
As both leaders see it, the real transformation may not be measured in factories or investment figures. It may be measured in a generation of children who grow up chatting with robot nurses — unafraid of the machines that will define their future. ◼