VNG Chairman: “Sovereign AI must build applications with unique values”

VNG Chairman Le Hong Minh shared that sovereign AI must build real AI applications and business models with distinct values, in the context that Vietnam's investment capital is still very small compared to the world.

On September 23, NVIDIA AI Day Ho Chi Minh City is part of a series of large-scale events organized by NVIDIA in many cities around the world for attendees to experience the latest AI technologies, connect and share strategies to bring AI from theory to practice.

NVIDIA AI Day Ho Chi Minh City is part of a series of large-scale events organized by NVIDIA in many cities around the world.

Building a Sovereign AI Platform for Vietnam

At the special discussion session with the topic “Building Sovereign AI for Vietnam: Vision, Capacity and Opportunities”, Mr. Vo Xuan Hoai, Deputy Director of the National Innovation Center (NIC) said: “ The Government is focusing on building a Vietnamese data set to serve AI research and development. In addition, developing an AI talent pool is the most important priority, which needs to be implemented immediately and effectively with the goal of having more than 50,000 engineers in the coming years; at the same time, the Government needs to issue comprehensive support policies for businesses, startups and the human resource community, thereby forming an AI startup ecosystem within the next 5 years”.

Currently, promoting the development of the AI ​​field is identified as one of the key tasks of the Party and Government with the goal of making Vietnam a leading center for innovation and AI application deployment in the ASEAN region.

VNG Chairman Le Hong Minh shared: “Sovereign AI must be able to build real AI applications and business models with distinct values, in the context that Vietnam's investment capital is still very small compared to the world. Besides, we still lack a team of AI research experts and the accumulation of core technology platforms. To solve these two problems, Vietnamese technology enterprises need to focus on developing and perfecting products and specific business opportunities. Users cannot be "forced" to use AI, but AI must be naturally integrated into the experience.”

For AI, speed of deployment is key. VNG successfully commercialized AI Cloud within 6 months, 20% of Zalo users are now using AI features after 2 years of testing. In addition, VNG is always looking for opportunities to cooperate with the Government, universities, researchers and startups to develop applications of high practical value.

“AI today is like the Internet in 1995-1996: there are many doubts and uncertainties. Developers need to stay excited about the possibilities that technology brings, and not take AI for granted. Learn, boldly explore, try and fail, and stick to the revenue engine from the beginning. Unlike Silicon Valley, where startups can raise capital even without a product, in Vietnam, you have to both explore and find a way to survive,” Mr. Le Hong Minh emphasized.

The first Vietnamese Large Language Model on NVIDIA NIM

During the event, GreenNode introduced GreenMind-Medium-14B-R1 (GreenMind). This is the first open-source Vietnamese Large Language Inference Model (LLM) integrated on the NVIDIA NIM platform and optimized to run on a single NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPU.

Thanks to its self-improving data loop mechanism, combined with human participation throughout the training process, GreenMind is suitable for many highly practical applications such as: enterprise AI assistant, smart chatbot, advanced document retrieval and information search system or complex reasoning tasks in Vietnamese.

Sharing about GreenNode's vision, Mr. Vo Trong Thu, Head of AI Lab, GreenNode said: "GreenNode focuses on mastering core technology, while developing GreenNode AI Platform as an open platform, making AI more accessible and closer to the community. The launch of GreenMind on NVIDIA NIM marks an important step forward, helping Vietnam to be more proactive in developing native AI models, while creating a platform for domestic businesses and startups to apply AI flexibly, cost-effectively and in accordance with practical needs."

Mr. Vo Trong Thu, Head of AI Lab, GreenNode said, GreenNode focuses on mastering core technology, while developing GreenNode AI Platform as an open platform, making AI more accessible and closer to the community.

Developed and trained by a team of Vietnamese AI engineers, GreenMind is an accessible domestic model with an open source orientation. This model not only helps optimize costs and comply with regulations, but also flexibly integrates into existing infrastructure to support Vietnamese businesses in exploiting advanced technology, reducing dependence on foreign resources.

“The new generation of AI models does not stop at just asking and answering questions, but begins to ‘think’: understand context, distinguish concepts and give more accurate answers. To do that, we must build reasoning data (multi-step reasoning) in Vietnamese, trained on the knowledge base of Vietnamese people themselves – from specialized knowledge to culture, language, and idioms. Only then can we create AI models that are truly dedicated to Vietnamese people, accurately reflecting Vietnamese thinking and values,” Mr. Vo Trong Thu explained.

Investing in core AI capabilities

Besides the orientation of developing open source LLM, VNG is still investing heavily in LLM training from the beginning, aiming at the goal of AI mastered by Vietnamese people to be able to integrate into global trends.

Dr. Chau Thanh Duc, Head of Research & Development at Zalo AI, emphasized that developing a large “sovereign” language model associated with the characteristics of Vietnamese requires quality data, the ability to deploy on a large scale and training methods suitable for limited resource conditions.

Dr. Chau Thanh Duc, Head of Research & Development at Zalo AI, emphasized that developing a large, "sovereign" language model associated with the characteristics of Vietnamese requires quality data and the ability to deploy on a large scale.

These are the practical experiences that Zalo has drawn from its journey to build AI products specifically for Vietnamese people, realizing the vision of “AI-First”. Currently, Zalo AI is operating specialized R&D research labs, serving the research and application of many advanced AI technologies.

Zalo's success has made Vietnam one of the few Southeast Asian countries to own a domestic LLM model, marking a strategic milestone in the context of increasingly fierce global technology competition.

“Zalo's big goal is that in 5 years, 100% of Vietnamese people will use the messaging platform and smart AI assistant developed by Zalo,” Mr. Le Hong Minh shared.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/chu-tich-vng-ai-co-chu-quyen-phai-co-gia-tri-rieng-biet-2445427.html