Cooperating with the world's leading AI research institutes. After 14 years with FPT, having held many positions from technology expert to CTO (chief technology officer) of a member company of FPT, Mr. Vu Hong Chien is currently responsible for building the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) sector in Quy Nhon.

Mr. Vu Hong Chien, Director of FPT AI Quy Nhon (Photo: FPT)

“Before joining FPT, I worked for Microsoft. One of my biggest aspirations as a technology expert is to bring technology into life to improve the quality of life of Vietnamese people, from supporting learning for students, to supporting people in remote areas to have better medical treatment conditions... When I joined FPT, I still kept that aspiration. When I established the AI ​​Center, it seemed that my dream could come true,” Mr. Chien said. With the mission of applying technology to improve the quality of life for Vietnamese people, in addition to creating technology products himself, the Director of FPT AI Quy Nhon also wants to popularize new technologies of the world such as AI to the community, creating competitive advantages for Vietnamese businesses, helping to attract many large corporations to invest in Vietnam, creating more jobs for people. “Right from the beginning, we determined that we were not really good at research, so we had to cooperate with research institutes around the world to learn from them. We have cooperated very well with Mila - the largest AI research institute in the world, and especially Google. Since 2021, we have cooperated with Google to carry out a research project to support African farmers. Up to now, more than 2 million African farmers are using our products. At the end of 2022, Google highly appreciated that product and awarded us an award. We are still cooperating with Google on many research projects,” Mr. Chien boasted. The nature of AI is Mathematics, and at FPT AI Quy Nhon, there are many experts in Mathematics. The Vietnamese technology enterprise has had a number of scientific articles published in international scientific journals. For example, last year there was an article about the application of Computer Vision in cancer screening, published in the world's largest scientific journal. "It is expected that by 2030, we will be one of the leading AI centers in the ASEAN region. Currently, in Quy Nhon, there is FPT University specializing in AI, there is an AI Center, and I am also promoting cooperation with a number of research institutes in the world to build the FPT AI Institute in Quy Nhon. Currently, we have coordinated with the Mila Institute as well as the Google Institute... to carry out a number of research projects, learn some new technologies. We expect that by 2027, we can establish an AI Institute in Quy Nhon with those institutes", the Director of FPT AI Quy Nhon shared more.

In addition to creating their own technology products, the FPT AI Quy Nhon team also wants to spread the world's new technology to the community (Photo: FPT)

Registering a world patent “In terms of research, with Explainable AI, I am quite proud to say that we are very good and highly regarded in the world. We have registered a method to explain how an AI model works and why it gives such results. We have registered a world patent for this method,” Mr. Chien said excitedly. Explainable AI helps solve many problems, especially in the fields of finance, healthcare, insurance, etc. Doctors or insurers cannot accept that an AI model gives results that cannot be explained. For most people, an AI model is a black-box. In the past, users would input data and the AI ​​would give results, and users would not know why the results were like that. Now, Explainable AI will clearly explain the results. The research process of Explainable AI helps the FPT AI Quy Nhon team understand the architecture, characteristics, and specificities of AI models with specific problems, greatly reducing the costs related to developing and building an AI model. “When building an AI model, the cost for programmers to create an AI model is not large, but the biggest cost lies in how to have data to train that AI model. Explainable AI helps reduce a lot of costs related to data processing. Instead of needing 1 million records to create an AI model with 95% accuracy, we only need 1,000 records,” Mr. Chien analyzed. After 3 years of establishment, in addition to providing AI solutions to customers, FPT AI Quy Nhon has developed and deployed quite well a number of products in the world, especially in Japan, Canada, the US, France, Germany..., recently returning to deploy in Vietnam. One of the "key" products is the AI-based camera called akaCam, which has been deployed to about 20 factories, along with a number of banks such as ACB, TPBank, Techcombank..., and a number of retailers such as Phat Retail...

akaCam has been deployed to about 20 factories along with a number of banks and retailers (Photo: FPT)

Factories need to apply AI so that workers comply with procedures and ensure work safety. AI will quickly detect and warn of violations of work safety. With the ability to not only simply identify objects but also analyze their behavior, akaCam is applied to the Vietnam-Australia shrimp factory, monitoring and scoring shrimp feeding behavior (the way food is poured can negatively affect shrimp quality if workers do not comply with regulations). akaCam has also been applied in households to detect burglaries, or to support the elderly and children in time when there are incidents; applied to chain stores, bank transaction offices... to streamline customer care, creating the best experience for each customer. Another typical case that has brought into play the high efficiency of akaCam in practice is a fairly famous automobile factory. Mr. Chien said: "Evaluating the quality of the machine surface is a very complicated job because there are many oil grooves in it. Normally, when the machine face is finished, 4 workers will have to stand and check the machine face, using a magnifying glass to check the grooves for aluminum peeling (the regulation is no larger than 0.06mm). We have designed an industrial camera cluster system that applies AI on the production line. When the machine face passes through, it will take hundreds of photos and check all the grooves to see if there are any errors. The product has been deployed to customer factories throughout Asia. After the deployment, there are almost no more workers to check. " On the other hand, to meet the great demand from businesses, especially factories and companies related to logistics and retail, for optimizing operating costs, last July, FPT AI Quy Nhon deployed an optimization solution. Phat Retail has applied this solution to optimize the circulation of Uniqlo's goods globally. In addition, the Vietnamese technology enterprise has also invested in research and has its own products on Edge Computing. “For an AI solution to run, it requires a GPU system (graphics processing unit - an electronic circuit capable of performing calculations at high speed) that is powerful enough, especially for solutions that need to be processed almost immediately in real time. Deploying an AI solution requires a huge infrastructure cost. This is also one of our concerns when developing the product. Obviously, our product is very good, when introduced, customers accept it immediately, but then they do not dare to deploy it anymore because the cost is very high. However, basically, when we have Explainable AI, we can optimize and ensure very good accuracy, thanks to that, the infrastructure cost is greatly reduced,” Mr. Chien commented.
According to a PwC report, AI has the potential to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. AI helps automate manufacturing processes, increase labor productivity by up to 40%, and create tools to support more accurate disease diagnosis, for example, the cancer diagnosis rate can be up to 90%, 10% higher than doctors. According to the World Economic Forum, AI can replace 85 million jobs globally by 2025. The rapid development of AI also raises concerns about ethics, cybersecurity, and privacy. For example, Deepfake technology can create extremely realistic fake videos, potentially spreading misinformation and manipulating public opinion.
Decision No. 127 promulgating the National Strategy on AI Research, Development and Application to 2030, signed by the Prime Minister in January 2021, sets some quite high goals: By 2025, AI will become an important technology field in Vietnam; Vietnam will be in the top 5 countries in ASEAN and the top 60 countries in the world in AI research, development and application; Building 5 prestigious AI brands in the region... Last year, Vietnam ranked 5th in the ASEAN AI rankings, after Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. However, in the global rankings, it dropped 4 places from 55 to 59.

Binh Minh - Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/fpt-muon-xay-dung-quy-nhon-thanh-thung-lung-ai-cua-khu-vuc-2283833.html