AI research and application are developing rapidly in Vietnam and becoming key to its digital transformation, from data digitization, business processes management to transformation of operating models.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy said AI is a core technology leading national productivity. It has a strong, revolutionary and breakthrough impact on the development of production, business, services and all aspects of human life, while also creating added value to products based on intellectual content.

The strategy adopted in 2021 aims to promote the research, development and application of AI by 2030, contributing to socioeconomic development and gradually turning Vietnam into an innovation center with AI applications in the region and in the world.

FPT Chair Truong Gia Binh suggested Vietnam might escape the middle income trap with AI. “Because AI is actually a version of mathematics, Vietnam has a mathematical tradition. Currently, the world has about 22,000 data experts, and Vietnamese experts are believed to account for nearly one tenth of them,” Binh said.

Dr. Vo Sy Nam from the Vingroup Big Data Institute (VinBigData) said he and his co-workers are researching and developing large-scale biomedical data analysis systems as well as predictive models for disease risks and drug side effects for diagnosis and treatment.

From biological samples to traffic cameras

One such project, the VinGen Data Portal launched in December 2020, currently stores more than 1,200 terabytes of data of nearly 5,000 biological samples from gene decoding projects at VinBigdata.

According to FPT Chief Technology Officer Le Hong Viet, FPT has provided AI-related services and products, which are being used widely. FPT has even put AI self-driving cars into use in the Ecopark urban area.

Traffic is another field that AI can revolutionize. FPT’s systems deployed in Ho Chi Minh City use AI to observe and calculate traffic volumes and warn of congestion, enabling adjustment of the traffic light systems.

Dr. Bui Hai Hung, a former senior specialist of Google DeepMind (the US), said AI has made remarkable strides over the past decade, creating comprehensive change for industries around the world. For example, computers can understand human voices and recognize objects, facilitating breakthroughs in a variety of fields, from healthcare to energy.

Hung said Vietnam is off to a good start with AI labs set up by companies like FPT and Zalo. However, the training of the next generation of AI talents has not received due attention. Vietnamese universities face difficulties in this regard because of the relatively high training cost and need for state and business investment.