TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's manufacturing giant Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海科技集團), known internationally as Foxconn, will unveil the island's first indigenous traditional Chinese large language model (LLM) by month's end. Lee Yung-Hui (栗永徽), who leads the AI Research Center at Hon Hai Research Institute, revealed details about the ambitious "FoxBrain" project during his presentation at the "Taiwan AI Ready Forum" hosted at Cisco's facilities Wednesday (May 14).
Lee described Hon Hai's pivotal transformation from a contract manufacturer into a comprehensive platform services provider. The sophisticated FoxBrain system, according to Lee, will serve as the technological foundation for the company's three strategic growth areas: electric vehicle development, advanced manufacturing systems, and integrated urban infrastructure solutions.
The FoxBrain project represents nearly two years of intensive development work, Lee noted, with particular emphasis on creating sophisticated reasoning capabilities. Hon Hai already has plans for an enhanced multimodal version 2.0 specifically designed for autonomous vehicle applications. The company employed an innovative "AI training AI" approach, incorporating distinctly Taiwanese knowledge frameworks and traditional Chinese reasoning patterns, resulting in a 70-billion-parameter model that will eventually be condensed into a more efficient 8-billion-parameter version.
Lee outlined several strategic advantages driving Hon Hai's decision to develop its own language model rather than relying on existing systems. These benefits include maintaining control over sensitive data, developing specialized AI expertise within Taiwan's workforce, implementing robust governance frameworks, and safeguarding proprietary technologies. The company has prioritized building comprehensive internal databases while pursuing independent development to address unique linguistic and cultural considerations, enhance information security, mitigate cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and ensure adaptability to local market needs.
The FoxBrain system will be fully compatible with NVIDIA's NIM microservices architecture, Lee explained, allowing software developers across Taiwan's technology sector to leverage the model as a cornerstone for building specialized artificial intelligence applications and services. ★
