Big language models are not just technology, they are national strategic assets.

- What do you share about the reasonFPT initiated the establishment of the Au Lac AI Alliance?

There are 5 important factors for effective and sustainable AI development including: Data, Algorithms and Computing Infrastructure, Legal and Ethical Framework. If "going alone", these are really big challenges for businesses.

FPT has had to go a long way over 10 years to have a comprehensive AI ecosystem, from research capacity, cooperation with the most prestigious research institutes and organizations in global AI such as Mila, Landing AI, National University of Singapore ..., to a diverse AI solution ecosystem, a large human resource and superior computing infrastructure - This is not an easy journey.

Our AI research team in 2013 had less than 10 people, self-studying algorithms, training models to create the most primitive products of artificial intelligence. And I believe that other businesses, like FPT, have also encountered challenges before creating their own strengths.

However, AI research and development is a long-term race, each enterprise and organization has its own strengths but also has gaps that need to be filled with knowledge and experience from the community. If we want to go far, we must go together. That is the reason why FPT Chairman Truong Gia Binh initiated the establishment of the Au Lac AI Alliance - a strategic initiative to connect Vietnamese intelligence, Vietnamese resources and Vietnamese aspirations.

And we were very surprised and moved that in less than two weeks since sharing our desire to establish the Au Lac AI Alliance, more than 20 businesses, startups, and universities responded to participate. This is the initial success of the Alliance. We believe that the Alliance will quickly have new members.

- One of the important goals of the Au Lac AI Alliance is to develop a large Vietnamese language model - Au Lac LLM. So, sir, why is it necessary to have a large Vietnamese language model?

The AI race is changing. Governments around the world are prioritizing sovereign AI designed to align with a nation’s interests, security priorities, and cultural values.

One of the first steps in developing sovereign AI capabilities is to build indigenous large language models (LLMs). LLMs are not just technologies but have become national strategic assets, similar to the Internet in the digital age. An indigenous LLM would not only reduce dependence on foreign LLMs but also address geographical, historical, cultural, and linguistic specificities.

Most of the famous LLMs today are from the US. Other countries have also come up with indigenous LLMs.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a strong AI platform (Falcon) in modern Arabic language processing and local dialects.

Korea has an AI product specifically for Koreans (HyperCLOVA X), which has the ability to deeply understand Korean language and culture.

India launches BharatGPT which has in-depth understanding of Indian culture, from festivals, customs to regional language usage and can be customized by industry.

Singapore has launched the National Multimodal LLM Programme (NMLP) with an investment of tens of millions of dollars, providing high-performance computers to institutes/universities/enterprises, and developing multilingual LLMs suitable for Southeast Asian culture and languages (SEA‑Lion).

Not investing in LLM means being completely dependent on foreign technology platforms, from data, algorithms to how AI intervenes in work, life and information that people access every day.

If Vietnam wants to maintain its economic and cultural sovereignty, it needs LLM developed by Vietnamese people. The Au Lac AI Alliance aims to develop Au Lac LLM as a foundation for building AI applications capable of processing Vietnamese accurately and naturally, in accordance with Vietnamese culture and identity, thereby improving people's knowledge and promoting national economic development.

Artificial intelligence is one of FPT's core technologies.

- Before the Alliance was established, what difficulties did businesses face in developing Vietnamese LLM? How will Au Lac LLM help solve these challenges?

To develop an LLM, high-quality training data, powerful computing infrastructure (GPU/TPU), advanced algorithms, a team of multidisciplinary experts, large financial resources and a rigorous testing process are needed. This is not an easy problem for any country, business or organization. Therefore, the Alliance was established to mobilize the strength of the business community, startups, and technology experts to join hands to solve the above challenges.

- FPT is the leading crane in the IT industry, could you specifically talk about FPT's role in the alliance?

Each member of the Alliance has its own strengths and some of them are already leaders in their fields. I hope that the Alliance will join hands to build an open and transparent AI community, where all individuals, organizations and businesses can freely access and use the Alliance's public assets, including source code, data and models, even for commercial purposes, to stimulate innovation, widely apply AI, and realize national AI sovereignty.

Right at the launching ceremony, the first members of the Alliance made very clear commitments. MobiFone said it was ready to devote all possible resources to contribute to the success of the Alliance. MISA committed to contributing a team of experts specializing in data, especially in the field of finance and accounting. BKAV shared its readiness to do AGI - artificial general intelligence. Zalo affirmed that it would contribute its experience in successfully building a pure Vietnamese AI model, system architecture and VMLU Vietnamese proficiency assessment set with more than 10,000 questions.

Businesses are willing to contribute to the development of large language models (LLMs) that can process Vietnamese accurately, naturally, and in accordance with Vietnamese culture and identity, thereby improving people's knowledge and promoting national economic development.

With FPT, we also commit to sharing core technology and core models with the community, completely free of charge. FPT will open the entire platform and core technology, such as the LLM (Large Language Model) platform that FPT is using for the FPT.AI platform, for all members of the Alliance to develop and use together.

At the same time, FPT will open a joint laboratory to support small businesses, research institutes, schools, and startups, so that they can access data, tools, and especially training programs. And we will also propose breakthrough institutional and legal policies such as sandbox mechanisms, allowing AI testing in areas such as healthcare, education, and finance.

- As you shared, right at the launching ceremony, the Alliance had more than 20 initial members. What more will the Alliance need from the business community, institutes and schools to complete the goal of building a Vietnamese LLM for Vietnamese people?

On behalf of the Alliance, we respectfully invite all businesses, research institutes, universities, and technology communities [AM7] [HL8] to join the Alliance to join hands in building the Vietnamese AI foundation for an autonomous, sustainable digital future with Vietnamese identity.

And investing in AI development is a long-term race, and members of the Alliance, based on their strengths, can contribute finance, infrastructure, data, intellectual property including algorithms, LLM patents, human resources, etc. The Alliance is ready to welcome new members.

Ha An

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/mo-hinh-ngon-ngu-lon-khong-chi-la-cong-nghe-con-la-tai-san-chien-luoc-quoc-gia-ar950919.html