Audrey Tang

Audrey Tang is a Taiwanese politician, civic technologist, and free software pioneer who became Taiwan's first Digital Minister and the world's first openly nonbinary cabinet member. After attending ten educational institutions in ten years, Tang left formal schooling to pursue self-education at age 14. In her twenties, Tang emerged as a leader in free and open-source software, contributing to the revitalization of the Haskell and Perl programming languages. Tang founded an IT company at age 19 and later served as a consultant and digital advisor to Apple, contributing to the development of Siri.

Tang played a significant role in shaping g0v (gov-zero), a prominent civic tech movement, and helped broadcast the demands of Sunflower Movement activists during the occupation of Taiwan's Legislature. Tang contributed to the development of participatory democracy platforms such as vTaiwan and Join, integrating civic innovation into the public sector through initiatives like the Presidential Hackathon and Ideathon. Tang declared broadband a human right and launched vTaiwan, a participatory deliberation platform adopted in Japan, the United States, and the European Union.

As the inaugural Digital Minister in charge of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, Tang oversaw strategy for Taiwan's data economy, promoted cybersecurity, and coordinated digital governance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tang developed a website mapping mask locations using the National Health Insurance database to track pharmacy stocks in real time. Tang's tenure included the implementation of the Mask Map and 1922 SMS system, as well as prebunking defenses against cyber interference in national elections. Tang also introduced transparency measures to government operations, including live-streaming meetings, publishing transcripts, and maintaining open office hours for citizen consultation.

Tang has been recognized by TIME as one of the "100 Most Influential People in AI" and by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the "100 Global Thinkers." Tang received the Right Livelihood Award for advancing the social use of digital technology to strengthen democracy. As a Fellow of Oxford University's Institute for Ethics in AI, Tang is coauthor of the open project Plurality.net.

"Plurality" examines the potential of digital technologies to strengthen democracy globally, considering how collaborative technology can promote transparency and enhance public participation. Tang continues to broaden the vision of plurality—technology for collaborative diversity—to inspire audiences worldwide, drawing on technical expertise and experience in democratic innovation.