Kai-Shen Huang, Director of the Democratic Governance Program at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), spoke at the Taiwan Internet Governance Forum (TWIGF 2025) on September 23, joining the session on “Identity Disclosure and Authentication in the Age of AI.” In his remarks, he shared insights on the challenges of artificial intelligence and digital identity verification from a legal perspective. Huang emphasized that in the AI era, the construction of trust relies on three key dimensions—artificiality, authenticity, and privacy—and that society must rely on legal frameworks such as transparency, informed consent, and duty of care to redefine the norms of human-AI interaction.
In his presentation, Huang raised two critical “disclosure questions.” The first is content labeling—how can we confirm whether an output was generated by AI? The second is service disclosure—are users aware when they are interacting with an AI system? He stressed that both are essential because people need to know whether they are dealing with AI or humans, as well as who should be held accountable. These issues highlight that identity disclosure and verification in the AI era are not merely technical matters, but ones that directly concern social trust and accountability.
Huang further explained that the path to building trust can be understood in legal terms. It begins with transparency, the obligation to disclose when an AI system is in use. It advances to informed consent, which ensures individuals are provided with sufficient information to make meaningful choices. Finally, in high-risk contexts, it culminates in a duty of care—the responsibility to warn, mitigate harm, and ensure accountability. Only by adhering to these principles, he argued, can society maintain fairness and trust amid the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
The session was moderated by Ken-Ying Tseng, Partner at Lee and Li Attorneys-at-Law, who emphasized the timeliness of the discussion and actively facilitated exchanges among the panel. Panelists included Zee Kin Yeong, Chief Executive of the Singapore Academy of Law, and Trista Chen, Director of the AI Research Center at Microsoft Taiwan Development Center, among others, who contributed perspectives on digital identity, artificial intelligence, and privacy protection. The event was held at the IEAT Conference Center in Taipei and was also open for online participation, drawing lively engagement from both domestic and international experts and scholars.
The Taiwan Internet Governance Forum (TWIGF) is a platform that brings together multi-stakeholder groups—including government, academia, the technical community, civil society, and the private sector—to engage in dialogue on Internet public policy. The 2025 forum is held under the theme “Global Vision, Local Voices: A Dialogue for Taiwan Internet Governance after WSIS+20,” with discussions extending to sub-themes such as reflections of multiple stakeholders on WSIS+20, the balance between individual rights and social resilience in Internet governance, and innovations, regulations, safety, and digital inclusion in the age of AI.
