At AI4VN 2024, Head of the Central Economic Commission, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, international speakers, and domestic enterprises all affirmed that AI technology brings advantages and needs to be proactively developed and applied.
Vietnam Artificial Intelligence Day 2024 (AI4VN 2024) opened on the afternoon of August 23 with the participation of Head of the Central Economic Commission, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy, along with ambassadors, counselors and leaders of ministries, large corporations, scientists and the community interested in AI technology. Before entering the main session, the Government leaders and guests visited more than 20 booths displaying artificial intelligence (AI) application products at AI Expo.
The AI Summit began at 2 p.m. The 500-seat hall at the National Convention Center in Hanoi was packed. Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy delivered the opening speech, emphasizing the importance of responsible AI. He said that the Ministry of Science and Technology has issued many documents guiding the development of responsible AI, and recommended that units, organizations and individuals refer to them in the process of AI research.
Affirming that AI4VN 2024 is an important event, marking a new milestone after 7 years of organization to promote the artificial intelligence ecosystem, Deputy Minister Bui The Duy hopes that businesses in Vietnam will find solutions to apply in practice and can connect with international organizations. “The festival can contribute to the development of a sustainable AI ecosystem, making Vietnam an AI development center in the region and the world,” he said.
After the opening remarks, ambassadors from Australia, the US, the UK, South Korea, and UNESCO in Vietnam delivered welcoming remarks. All of them acknowledged Vietnam’s progress in building an AI ecosystem.
Mr. Iain Frew, British Ambassador to Vietnam, said that the achievements can be seen through the development of companies and corporations as well as the ability to apply in diverse industries such as finance, healthcare, and education.
Mr. Marc Evans Knapper, US Ambassador to Vietnam, thanked the Ministry of Science and Technology for organizing a meaningful scientific event and affirmed that they will continue to cooperate to develop and apply AI responsibly.
After the welcome of international representatives, Head of the Central Economic Commission, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang delivered a speech. He acknowledged that AI is being strongly promoted in many countries with the potential to be applied in many different fields and industries. More and more economic sectors are benefiting from AI.
The Deputy Prime Minister informed that Vietnam has developed many promotion policies, including the implementation of the National Strategy on Research, Development and Application of Artificial Intelligence to 2030 after three years, which has achieved some encouraging initial results. Artificial intelligence technology is contributing to significantly increasing labor productivity and improving the quality of human life.
The Government leader acknowledged that the rapid development of artificial intelligence also poses many challenges in management and governance not only in Vietnam but also in all countries in the world. However, he affirmed that “Vietnam’s development and application of AI must take national interests, the interests of society and the people as the center, and must not abuse technology to infringe upon these legitimate rights and interests.”
The undeniable benefits of AI technology
Part two of AI4VN continues with in-depth discussions from technology corporations and international experts.
In a speech on the topic “Opportunities from artificial intelligence”, Mr. Marc Woo – Managing Director, in charge of Vietnam, Google Asia – Pacific, Google believes in the great potential of Vietnam. In a decade, the unit has seen that GenAI brings many opportunities for digital transformation, and Vietnam has grasped this very well.
He also provided numerous examples of how GenAI helps people discover products more easily, making the experience more enjoyable through specific recommendations. AI impacts the modernization of business operations.
Also affirming the benefits of AI, Ms. Kim Hee-Eun, Director of Competition Policy in the Asia-Pacific region, Meta Group, is affecting all aspects of social life. In 2023, the global AI market reached 196 billion USD; annual growth of 37.3%. The growth forecast of artificial intelligence in the period of 2023-2030 is about 20 times. With such an exponential growth forecast, artificial intelligence has affected all aspects of society. “AI has helped to explore innovation and creativity and boost growth potential for many fields,” she said.
Next, two speakers from RMIT talked about “Artificial Intelligence has gone beyond the computer screen”. RMIT is also designing many AI devices to serve life. For example, devices for the visually impaired, helping them to “see”. “They cannot actually see, but through the device they can feel the virtual space, helping them carry out daily plans such as cooking, finding things easily”, Professor Fabio Zambetta shared.
RMIT also has more complex applications, such as a device that connects computers to the brain to read emotions. Specifically, when two people are working together, they can share emotions visually. “AI helps us go beyond the screen, beyond the traditional computer, to be more immersed in the real space, bringing superpowers, making the workspace more efficient,” said Professor Fabio Zambetta.
Vietnam needs to be self-reliant and make a breakthrough from artificial intelligence.
After the international information section, the hall became more lively when witnessing the art performance combining AI. Then, representatives of large domestic technology corporations also shared their views on the development and application of GenAI.
Professor Vu Ha Van, Director of Science at VinBigdata, said that the application of generative AI has become an inevitable trend. Recognizing the outstanding potential of generative AI, businesses have invested heavily in developing and applying this technology. In 2023 alone, the total amount of private businesses invested in generative AI reached 25.23 billion USD, an increase of nearly 9 times compared to a year earlier. Director of Science at VinBigdata cited that generative AI has brought multi-industry benefits. “When applied properly, generative AI can bring many benefits in many fields for both the world and Vietnam.”
He believes that to catch up with the wave of generative AI, Vietnam needs to focus on developing the three pillars of AI, which are people, resources and tools, from which to develop solutions owned by Vietnamese people. “Vietnam is facing a great opportunity for a breakthrough, we should not be the end user of foreign technology but should create our own technology, Vietnamese technology for Vietnamese people,” said Professor Vu Ha Van.
Creating our own AI is a recommendation from Mr. Le Hong Viet, General Director of FPT Smart Cloud, a member of FPT Corporation. According to him, Vietnam has the opportunity to catch up with global artificial intelligence and create a new AI industry. Vietnamese enterprises are competing with two things: the first is cheap labor and the second is labor productivity. However, in the future, those two things alone are not enough, we also need to compete with people, automation, technology… to create even higher productivity. “We need internal AI capacity specifically for Vietnam. This not only creates competition within the same country but also protects competition and differentiation for Vietnam,” he emphasized.
He suggested five things to do, the first of which is to have enough capacity to create AI applications that Vietnamese people can use. The second is to gather data from the government and Vietnamese people to master their own data. The third is technology infrastructure, building a platform for AI to enter businesses more smoothly. The fourth is to create abundant resources, attracting technology researchers and developers around the world. The last is to open up the AI market in Vietnam, helping businesses understand what values artificial intelligence brings, how to create productivity growth, and optimize costs.
Dr. Le Anh Van, Director of VNPT Generative AI Platform, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, looks at the AI human resource development perspective. Accordingly, Vietnam currently ranks 59th globally in the global AI readiness index, but there are still challenges in developing AI human resources. He believes that when there are quality AI human resources, there will be opportunities to perfect products and create even better products.
The festival ended with the Vietnam Artificial Intelligence Application Product Vote Award Ceremony – AI Awards 2024. Five excellent AI products, solutions, and application platforms were honored with a prize of a media benefits package worth 100 million VND in VnExpress newspaper.
AI4VN is an annual event directed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, organized by VnExpress Newspaper, FPT Online Services Joint Stock Company (FPT Online) in coordination with the Club of Information Technology – Communication Faculties – Institutes – Schools (FISU), starting from 2018.