Dr. Ngo Di Lan: I am optimistic about the 'gamble' of artificial intelligence

(Dan Tri) - How does a researcher in the Foreign Affairs sector use artificial intelligence (AI), and why does he compare AI to a "gamble"?

These are questions for Dr. Ngo Di Lan, who was once famous among international students when he wrote an open letter to the Ministerof Education and Training stating that Vietnamese students are weak in "critical thinking". At the age of 21, he became one of the five best candidates to receive a full doctoral scholarship from Brandeis University (USA). Currently, Ngo Di Lan works at the Institute for Strategic Studies of Diplomacy at the Diplomatic Academy. A few years ago, Lan was known among international students for his outstanding academic achievements and eloquence. Now you are a researcher in the Foreign Affairs Department. How was the journey from a "hot boy" to a researcher? - It was a difficult journey and lasted much longer than I thought. When I started my PhD , I initially thought that I would only work half a year to a year longer than the time the school had set, but in the end it took me more than two years to receive my doctorate, meaning that my total time as a PhD student lasted more than 7 years. There were many times when I felt like giving up. Regarding my PhD, I initially proposed to my two supervisors, "Can I do research on Vietnam's foreign policy?", but was rejected on the grounds that "if I research on Vietnam, people will see that I only focus on domestic issues and cannot go out to the big world." Finally, I decided to choose the topic of territorial conflicts and the reactions of countries when their territories were occupied. The topic was supported probably because it suited the taste of the teacher and the council. They thought that this was an important topic, with novelty and clear policy implications.

During the 7 years mentioned above, I tried my hand at many fields such as advertising, cuisine , etc., but in the end, I still returned to my original passion of researching international relations. Even with artificial intelligence, I focused on researching the impact of AI on international relations, the applications of AI in strategic planning and national security policy. Lan decided to become a researcher in the field of Diplomacy to develop his doctoral thesis as well as his major interests, or was there any other impact? - My passion for diplomacy comes from the fact that when I was young, I really liked history, reading many books about Vietnamese and world history. When I went to Sweden to study high school, I was lucky to meet two very interesting history teachers, who further aroused my interest and from that moment on I determined that this would be my lifelong passion. In fact, the field of international relations is still very young, it was not until the 20th century that it separated from its historical roots and branched out into its own branch, following the path of social sciences . However, one of the very important reasons is that I grew up in a diplomatic family, followed my parents abroad since I was young, grew up in embassies, and attended high school in 4 different countries. Through that, I also had the opportunity to communicate with many international friends, gradually feeling and loving the work of "foreign affairs". Perhaps all of this was naturally nurtured in me.

Many people imagine that researchers are very "decent and serious". It seems that this image is completely different from researcher Ngo Di Lan. What difficulties do young researchers often encounter? - Currently, if people meet the research team at the Institute for Foreign Strategic Affairs, they will see that we are young in both age and personality, and of course, in work, at any age, professionalism and carefulness are required. The most important requirement when coming to research work is real ability, not high or low qualifications. The ability to "detect problems" is especially valued. However, in reality, there is a prejudice that "young is still immature", which is sometimes not easy to overcome. If we generalize about the difficulties of researchers (not necessarily from my own experience), it can be said that this prejudice makes some young people somewhat disadvantaged, and sometimes they are not properly evaluated. On the young side, there are also objective difficulties, which are lack of experience, lack of soft skills and easy to lose direction. On the one hand, I understand that I need to focus on research work, but on the other hand, I also realize that research alone is not enough and there are many other things I have to do well, such as relationships with colleagues, communication with superiors, or presentation skills, convincing people about the ideas I put forward...

What are the specific difficulties and advantages of researcher Ngo Di Lan? - One of the biggest difficulties for me is limited time, while I have too many different research interests. When an important event happens, I often feel interested and want to learn about it right away. During my PhD in the US, my list of research ideas was always very long, about 70-80 different topics, and I eventually realized that no one had enough time to develop all of them. Another problem is that sometimes my interests or approaches are different from those of the people around me. This leads to certain barriers, for example, I strongly believe in the power of data and statistics in research, and believe that to predict a problem, I need to rely more on quantitative analysis than personal intuition, but this has not become a clear standard. However, not everyone shares this belief. In terms of advantages, there are many. The biggest advantage is probably being given the opportunity to do the work that I truly love and have the ability to contribute. The youthful and dynamic working environment stimulates me to explore and be creative, while the diversity of the assigned tasks makes me feel that I always have to strive and constantly learn and renew myself.

The difficulties and advantages that Lan just mentioned are also stories that many young people often encounter. In fact, today's society has a very different view of young people compared to the previous period. Looking at the world, we see young faces holding important positions, for example, in the field of security and foreign affairs, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is a young face. Which figures in the field of diplomacy have influenced Lan? - As far as I remember, the US has never had a national security advisor as young as Jake Sullivan (appointed in 2020, at the age of 44). Jake Sullivan is also a "theorist" on international relations, regularly publishing articles in prestigious magazines, not just participating in "combat". It can be said that this is a face that is having a huge impact on the national security strategy as well as the foreign policy of the US under the Biden administration. Personally, I read quite widely, so I am probably influenced by many different viewpoints and ideologies. I do not idolize any single character because even the most talented leaders or strategists can make wrong decisions. However, I admit that I tend to admire people who are calm, rational, always look out for the big picture, dare to take risks and most importantly, do not think in extremes or excesses.

I recently read Lan's book titled "AI Gamble". Why is a diplomatic researcher interested in artificial intelligence? - First of all, I want to say that artificial intelligence has actually existed in human life for many years now, but we may not have noticed it. The applications that people use every day from Google, Meta (Facebook), TikTok... are all AI-integrated applications. The reason TikTok can continuously recommend videos that interest users and are "addictive" is because the application's intelligent AI algorithm quickly and accurately recognizes what content we like to watch through our phone browsing habits. AI has also been developed by governments around the world in civil management, in the fields of security, military ... AI has been developed for many years but has only recently become popular, because since ChatGPT was born (late 2022), people have had the opportunity to communicate in natural language with artificial intelligence. We can talk to AI, ask it to compose poems, solve math problems, write essays, create images or videos from text, etc. In the words of Yuval Noah Harari - a thinker and best-selling author in the world, language is the starting point and operating system of human civilization, and AI has "hacked" this operating system. Not only the world's leading minds in strategy and technology, but each of us who have interacted with AI, see that this will be the future of the world, of humanity. Simply put, we will not be able to "escape" AI, so we should approach it proactively, learn about AI's strengths and weaknesses and how it can be applied to life and work. I myself have never approached AI simply from the perspective of an international relations researcher. First of all, I am interested in AI because I am a human being, a Vietnamese citizen. Artificial intelligence is like a wave, we want to ride it, not be drowned by it.

How does researcher Ngo Di Lan use AI in life and work? - I have had a series of conversations with ChatGPT for a long time on topics such as study, love, health and life, through which I see that AI is powerful enough to play the role of a super assistant for us in many diverse situations. For example, if I am busy and have a report that is hundreds of pages long and needs to be read, and need to grasp the main idea within 30 minutes, I can upload that report to ChatGPT and ask the machine to summarize it. AI does this better and faster than humans. I can also ask ChatGPT to compare the similarities and differences between statements by world leaders on the same topic, compare joint statements of two countries in different periods... These are things that if we do them ourselves, it will take a lot of time and effort and may not be as accurate as a machine. Of course, when I do this, I don't completely leave it to the machine. The AI ​​has become my partner, the two sides exchange with each other. The machine gives me the answer and I will ask critical questions, asking the machine to dig deeper into the data I have provided. This is the way to use AI that I find very useful.

In addition, at work or in personal relationships, when I need to write a letter (email), I will compose and ask AI to "polish" the words, check grammar, spelling, and edit the writing style to suit the recipient. For example, writing a letter to a foreign diplomat will require a different writing style than writing a letter to a scholar. These are things I witnessed ChatGPT do very quickly, I played the role of "editor-in-chief" to review one last time before sending. Another thing that I find very useful about AI is that when chatting, it does not judge, criticize, urge or try to "evangelize". Thanks to that, I can "confide" in ChatGPT not only to find useful answers but also to relieve stress. AI has infinite patience. We can state a problem that is not concise or clear, but it still understands, and especially does not ask us back in a harsh or unpleasant tone like in a conversation between people. I believe that in the next 3 to 5 years, anyone who has a smartphone will have a super virtual assistant by their side.

Recently, many experts have mentioned that artificial intelligence will "steal" human jobs in some fields. But according to the approach Lan mentioned above, I think AI can become an assistant but cannot replace humans. What does Lan think? - During my time in the US, I went to eat at Spyce and was really surprised by the automation process of this restaurant. Spyce is completely different from any restaurant we have ever been to because everything is done by machines, from choosing dishes on the screen to calculating the volume of ingredients, the robot arm brings the ingredients to the processing area, cooks the food. Within 3 minutes, the food is transferred to paper bowls, where the only employee in the restaurant completes the presentation and pouring sauce before delivering it to the customers. Of course, these are just fast food dishes and I think technology will not be able to replace chefs.

Overall, AI itself is still not able to compete with humans in the job market. For example, AI is having significant difficulty understanding certain contexts and human thinking, so it still occasionally gives silly answers or makes elementary mistakes, such as in producing images, videos or solving puzzles. But it is important to note that this is only the present. AI is constantly improving, and if combined with robotics technology to have an AI-controlled object moving in the physical world, the game will change significantly. The demo of the robot "Figure 01" is a clear demonstration of this. The real "scary" thing about ChatGPT in particular and AI software in general is that they will continuously improve over time at a much faster rate than humans can update and adapt. The human brain is still superior to machines (using less input energy, giving more output results) but with the biological body, to survive we need to sleep about 7-8 hours a day or more, we have to eat, then spend time to rest, entertain, nurture relationships with people around us... AI absolutely does not need those things. They can spend 24 hours a day just to learn and continuously improve their abilities. In my opinion, sooner or later AI will evolve into a form of intelligence far different from what we can imagine. And in the near future, people who know how to use AI will take the jobs of people who do not know how to use AI.

Why does Lan believe in the advantages of people who know how to use AI in the job market? - Because there is no reason for a company to maintain 10 employees when 3 people with AI applications can do the work of 10 people well. This is simply a story of profit. Obviously, AI cannot completely replace a journalist, a doctor or a teacher. But AI will make the work in these fields change significantly. Let me take the example of the teaching profession. My family has at least 7 teachers, including my mother and sister. During my time as a PhD student in the US, I also spent 3 years as a teaching assistant in a school. With what I know about teaching as well as the capabilities of AI, I think that products like ChatGPT will not "erase" the teaching profession, but will help teachers focus their energy and intelligence on the most important task of unleashing the self-learning ability inside each student. But to do that, first of all, teachers must master AI, must be proficient in ChatGPT like a current office worker is proficient in Microsoft Word or Google, thereby being able to interact, guide, and inspire students, who are all young people who are very familiar with ChatGPT. The implication of this story is that in designing labor market policies, we need to pay attention to training knowledge and skills about AI, not only for those working in the technology field but also for all professions. This is a problem for the whole people, the whole society, because improving the capacity of each worker in the AI ​​era also contributes to improving national competitiveness.

With the benefits in the present and the promising future, why is artificial intelligence a "gamble"? - We are only in the early stages of the AI ​​era but have witnessed its formidable powers. Therefore, it can be said that investing in AI will still be a "gamble" because no one is sure whether this technology will lead humanity to a higher level of evolution or to extinction. Both the positive and negative aspects of this technology are too great. But we are accepting the bet that the good will overwhelm the bad. Faced with two streams of pessimistic and optimistic opinions about AI, I would say that I am a relatively cautious optimist. I believe that the positive aspects of AI are completely big enough for us to accept the risks, but humans will have to make a lot of effort to control the negative aspects that may occur. Take social networks for example, at first people basically welcomed them very enthusiastically and indeed it brought many positive impacts. But then social media developed very quickly and "morphed" in unpredictable ways. Now that social media has developed very firmly, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to control the negative aspects.

From the perspective of a researcher, what does Lan suggest for the implementation of the AI ​​strategy in Vietnam? - I think we should build a Vietnamese "philosophical" framework on AI, and this will be the basis for guiding actions in a rapidly changing and uncertain world like today. This philosophy can be based on the following points. First , believe that the positive aspects of AI will be fundamental, and can serve the goal of rapid, sustainable growth and narrowing the gap between rich and poor. The achievements of AI must be distributed harmoniously, not just serving to enrich a minority group. Second , Vietnam needs to proactively engage with other countries in the world, especially ASEAN countries and strategic partners in the region, to gradually build common rules of the game on AI. Third , focus resources on popularizing AI for all people, like the way we eliminated illiteracy after the August Revolution or popularized foreign languages, especially English, over the past many years.

Finally, for the long-term vision, we need to continue to build large datasets of Vietnamese people, gradually using these datasets to train and develop domestic AI tools. If we can do so, I believe that Vietnamese people can integrate well without dissolving in the AI ​​era. Thank you, Dr. Ngo Di Lan, for this interesting conversation!

Content: Vo Thanh

Photo: Thanh Dong

Video: Pham Tien, Minh Quang

Design: Duc Binh

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