TSMC executive calls AI a ‘three-year-old superman’ as chipmaker takes cautious internal stance

The world’s most important chipmaker is pumping the brakes on its own internal AI adoption, even as it manufactures the chips that make AI possible for everyone else. At a career forum held at National Taiwan University, TSMC Co-COO Y.J. Mii compared artificial intelligence to a three-year-old superman: extraordinarily powerful, and almost entirely without the judgment to use that power wisely. TSMC is the foundry that produces chips for Nvidia, Apple, and virtually every other company betting its future on AI. The judgment problem Mii’s concern centers on the gap between capability and wisdom. AI can write code. It can accelerate electronic design automation, the complex software-driven process of laying out semiconductor circuits. Those are real, measurable wins. Where AI falls short, in Mii’s view, is in the high-stakes decisions that define next-generation chip development. Semiconductor process engineering at the leading edge involves tradeoffs that are subtle, costly, and sometimes irreversible. The data leak risk is particularly pointed for a company like TSMC. Its manufacturing process knowledge, the specific parameters and recipes that let it produce chips no one else can ...