TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Ambassador-at-Large Audrey Tang (唐鳳) received Sweden’s Right Livelihood Award on Tuesday, an honor often described as an “alternative Nobel Prize.”
Tang said that while social media has deepened polarization in many countries, she remains hopeful that artificial intelligence can be harnessed for the public good, strengthening democracy and community cohesion rather than fueling doomscrolling or the spread of negative content, per CNA.
The Right Livelihood Award, established in 1980 by Swedish lawmaker Jakob von Uexkull, recognizes individuals and organizations advancing environmental protection, human rights, sustainable development, health, and peace.
“I believe we can guide AI to transform from an addictive intelligence to an assistive intelligence that is community-driven and serves the community,” Tang said in an interview before the awards ceremony.
The jury on Oct. 1 praised Tang for “promoting the social application of digital technology to empower citizens, revitalize democracy, and bridge divisions.”
Tang said she believes humanity will remain “super-intelligent” but emphasized the need to ensure AI empowers communities rather than serving only large corporations.
She highlighted Taiwan’s efforts to develop an AI model that can facilitate communication across ethnic groups separated by language and culture. “We are not training a single sovereign model to unify all ideas, but rather allowing each language and cultural group to train its own citizen AI,” she said.
These citizen-led AIs can interact with one another, helping diverse groups pursue shared public interests, Tang added.
She cited climate justice advocates and faith-based “creation care” groups as an example, saying AI can help bridge communication gaps. “Creation care” refers to environmental stewardship from a religious perspective, based on the belief that God created the world.
“AI can translate climate justice work into church communities, letting them understand that this is also doing God’s work,” Tang said, adding that such collaboration benefits both the environment and society.
Tang also stressed the importance of rejecting the notion that “democracy only creates polarization and chaos and brings no benefits,” calling it a central argument used by authoritarian regimes.
