Dan Tri Newspaper interviewed the founders and senior advisors of "AI for Vietnam - Artificial Intelligence for Vietnam" about the organization's vision, as well as the opportunities and challenges in realizing its ambition to contribute to creating a breakthrough in AI development to "enhance the capacity" of Vietnamese people in all socio-economic fields.
What chance brought Vietnamese "brains" from all over the world together in the project "AI for Vietnam"?
- Dr. Tran Viet Hung : The story begins with a shared vision of the growing importance of AI in shaping Vietnam's future. We see both opportunities and challenges. The enormous potential of AI in creating breakthroughs in development is clear, but our country is lacking in resources, tools, and the presence of Vietnamese in large-scale AI systems.
This is probably something that many others have noticed, and if we want to make a change, we need to act immediately. Driven by our passion for innovation and our spirit of returning to our homeland, we founded "AI for Vietnam - AIV", a non-profit organization in Silicon Valley (USA) with an ambitious but also very close mission: bringing AI to every Vietnamese person, helping each individual to be able to use AI and thereby increase their "power" by 10 times in studying, business, entertainment...
In other words, we connect Vietnamese AI experts with global partners to promote education, research and practical application of AI in Vietnam. We want to leverage artificial intelligence to help Vietnam reach out, becoming a leading center for AI applications, where AI is widely applied in all areas of life, creating a competitive advantage on the global map.
AIV is not just a project, but rather, through cutting-edge research and a strong global network, we are working to build an AI ecosystem for Vietnam, from education to developing essential datasets and tools to open up new development opportunities.
Just two months after its establishment, AIV introduced the ViGen project, an initiative to build the largest open-source Vietnamese language dataset ever. Why did AIV want to embark on this project right away?
- While many countries and large enterprises in the world are fully exploiting the potential of AI - sometimes with simple but effective applications, Vietnam has not yet fully exploited this "treasure". One of the biggest barriers is that Vietnamese language support in AI is still weak. As everyone knows, AI learns and acts based on the data it is "nourished". Simply put, data is the lifeblood of AI - how you teach it, it will respond.
Currently, Vietnam has many sources of Vietnamese data, from Wikipedia, books, administrative documents, newspapers, and social networks. Among them, social networks are the largest repository of data, but the problem lies in quality. Language on social networks is often non-standard, sometimes offensive, and inaccurate. So the question is: do we dare to use this data to train AI, and then apply it to sensitive areas such as healthcare or education? Imagine: if AI "learns" from poor quality data, it will "speak" and "act" in a similar way. This is the "Achilles heel" that makes us fall behind in the global AI race.
Seeing that, we launched the ViGen project, in cooperation with the Vietnam National Innovation Center (NIC) and Meta (Facebook's parent company) to create a high-quality data system, helping AI deeply understand and accurately reflect Vietnamese language and culture.
ViGen will establish clear evaluation criteria to measure the effectiveness of AI in processing Vietnamese; connect and support the domestic AI community, aiming to improve the capacity and application of AI in Vietnam; at the same time, promote the participation of organizations, businesses and communities so that AI becomes an effective support tool, improving the lives of Vietnamese people. This is a fundamental technological work, which will contribute to laying the first brick for the explosion of AI in Vietnam.
It can be understood that Vietnamese data for training AI models currently accounts for only a very small proportion. The ViGen project aims to create high-quality data sets to improve the Vietnamese language usage of AI and virtual assistants?
- Yes, data is the key! Currently, Vietnam does not have enough resources to build "huge" AI models from scratch. But that does not stop us. Instead, AIV chooses a smart strategy: Standing on the shoulders of giants. Specifically, we take advantage of free open source AI models that large companies in the world have created. Our job is to build a massive Vietnamese data set, then share it as open source code. AI developers can use this data to train their models - which are already "embedded" with Vietnamese support from the core - to continue developing applications suitable for Vietnam.
This is a unique approach that not many countries can do: training AI in their own native language. Currently, AI training data is mainly in English and Chinese, while Vietnamese is as rare as "autumn leaves". We are determined to change that by creating a giant Vietnamese data warehouse, larger than any previous effort. This is an open innovation project, requiring the cooperation of many individuals and organizations. Fortunately, we started with enthusiastic support from the community. Hopefully, more and more people will participate, because this is not just a matter for one person, but a common benefit for the entire Vietnamese AI community.
The founders and senior advisors of "AI for Vietnam" are very busy with their official work, and are far apart from each other from Northern Europe to the United States, how can they deploy work at a "dizzying" speed: Just established, they joined hands with Meta to deploy the ViGen project?
- Master To Dieu Lien : Among the founders of AIV, I am the only one who does not come from a technology background. I graduated with a Master of Science in Public Policy & Public Administration from the University of Massachusetts Boston (USA), and have more than 16 years of experience running non-profit organizations, social enterprises, as well as innovation projects.
To date, I have participated in building and implementing more than 30 humanitarian and sustainable development projects, with priority given to improving the lives of vulnerable groups. Through many years of "carrying the burden of prison and the whole country", I realized one thing: when you work with a heart that truly wants to contribute, the door will open wide. With this belief, when I heard Mr. Tran Viet Hung propose the idea of establishing "AI for Vietnam", I immediately agreed to participate without hesitation. Whatever I can do for Vietnam, I am ready.
The work is really overwhelming! In the past two months, the entire "AI for Vietnam" team has almost forgotten to eat and sleep - no exaggeration, but they have worked continuously through the night. Le Viet Quoc, Tran Viet Hung, and I are in the US, but Vu Xuan Son is in Sweden, the time difference makes our work schedules a real "war". During the day, everyone is busy with their full-time main jobs; at night, the whole team throws themselves into the project. Notably, none of us receive any salary - we all voluntarily "exploit" our own labor.
But thanks to that "crazy" work ethic and high performance, after only two months, we launched our first project, collaborating with "big guys" like Meta, Google, Nvidia.
A non-profit organization, with no salary, but with a very big ambition: to dataize Vietnamese, contributing to laying the foundation for the development of AI in Vietnam. The initial results are a testament to the power of dedication and unity.
Of course, not everyone believes in the motives of a team working without pay. Many people are skeptical, thinking that "there must be some money behind it". I have also been questioned many times. But with people who share the same goals and values, they immediately understand our desire - that we simply want to use our efforts to contribute to the development of society and AI for Vietnam.
From the perspective of someone working in the social sector, how do you view artificial intelligence when participating in "AI for Vietnam"?
- AI is exploding at a dizzying speed, making many people worried, even scared. But for me, that's nothing to worry about. It's here, the problem is we have to learn how to master it. AI is like a knife. If you don't know how to use it, you will cut yourself. But if you master it, it becomes an indispensable tool. Nowadays, no one cooks delicious food with just their hands, right? With a good knife, you can make a whole banquet, even turn it into a weapon if needed. AI is the same! Instead of avoiding it, we need to look straight at the negative side of AI to control it, while focusing on exploiting the wonderful benefits it brings.
This is a new tool that will help us escape the speed of "walking" or "biking" to fly like an airplane, even a rocket. AI is not like old technologies that require complex machines or years of learning. Now, with just a computer and the Internet, from a 6-7 year old child to an adult anywhere can learn and create AI products in a short time. How exciting!
The beauty of AI is that the creativity it brings is almost limitless. With AI applications, we can change everything from education, economy to social life. The playing field is now fair for everyone. Of course, if we have good resources, it will be more favorable, but on the other hand, AI is a revolution that you do not need to be rich, do not need to be superior in resources to participate, you just need to want to learn and dare to change.
If you imagine the journey that "AI for Vietnam" will take, what stage is it at now?
- Whether it is an AI organization or any other field, to operate smoothly, you need a diverse team with all kinds of expertise - from engineering, operations, law, human resources to communications. With "AI for Vietnam", the technology part is clearly the backbone, thanks to excellent minds like Mr. Tran Viet Hung, Mr. Vu Xuan Son or Mr. Le Viet Quoc. But to build and maintain an organization, technology alone is not enough. It also requires many people with different skills. That's where I come in - I take on the part of building the organization, operating the machine, connecting the pieces so that the whole system works smoothly.
The journey ahead is still long, not a matter of a day or two! AI is not just a hot trend, but a great revolution, like when computers or the Internet were born, changing the whole world. If we compare it to a road, then "AI for Vietnam" has just stepped over the three steps, not out of the main gate. Our organization has only been established for two months, but that does not mean we are just taking baby steps. On the one hand, we rushed to build the apparatus; on the other hand, we jumped into the race, boldly inviting the "big guys" of technology to join. We did not wait - we started running right away, and were determined not to miss the opportunity to contribute something meaningful to our homeland.
The vision of "AI for Vietnam" can be as big as ten parts, very ambitious. But we think simply: achieving just five parts, even two parts, will make a significant difference. People like Dr. Le Viet Quoc or Dr. Tran Viet Hung - their time is precious, their salaries are sky-high, their jobs are managing international teams - and yet they still devote themselves to the project. That is a great inspiration and I have strong faith in the road ahead of "AI for Vietnam".
With their vision, how do the founders of AIV envision the development of artificial intelligence in Vietnam in the near future?
- Dr. Tran Viet Hung: I truly believe that we are facing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - a historical moment that cannot be missed! Why? In previous technology waves, Vietnam has always been behind and even missed out. But this time, with artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, this is a completely new field for the whole world, not just Vietnam.
But opportunities do not come automatically! We must act now, we cannot let them pass. With a strong commitment from the Government, the support of businesses and experts, and the enthusiastic attention of the whole society, I believe that impressive results will come very quickly. Personally, I am extremely optimistic about this future - this is the time for Vietnam to write its own success story!
When it comes to artificial intelligence - a vast field full of potential - many people often think of famous names such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek or products from the US and China, demonstrating the outstanding development power of these two countries. So for Vietnam, are we behind?
- Dr. Vu Xuan Son : I think Vietnam is not behind in the AI race, but we are not moving fast enough. In fact, Vietnam has started the journey to conquer AI in a promising way. From large corporations with abundant resources to small companies, even individual programmers, all are approaching AI very well. But to really take the lead, we are facing two major barriers: lack of resources, and insufficient quality data from the source.
Currently, most of the AI data that Vietnam uses comes from foreign open source systems. What about Vietnamese data? Very limited! It mainly relies on sources shared by global corporations. The question is: with such a small amount of data, how can we ensure quality to effectively apply AI to serve society?
Imagine applying AI to sensitive areas like finance or healthcare. The risks are not small! Not just technical risks – like systems not working properly – but also liability and ethical risks. Assuming AI achieves 99% accuracy, it sounds impressive, but the remaining 1% of errors in healthcare can lead to serious consequences, even taking human lives.
For AI to truly become a "powerful assistant" for society, safe and effective, we must build from the core foundation. And that core is data. That is the reason why "AI for Vietnam" and the "ViGen" project were born as we mentioned above. The goal is nothing more than creating a high-quality Vietnamese data source, laying a solid foundation for the future of AI in Vietnam. Only when we solve the data problem can we accelerate and affirm our position on the world AI map.
From the perspective of a pioneering AI researcher at Google, what is Dr. Le Viet Quoc's comment on the opportunities for artificial intelligence in Vietnam?
- Dr. Le Viet Quoc : Vietnam is facing a golden opportunity to shine in the field of artificial intelligence. First, AI is still a new "playground" with untapped potential. The things we use every day like ChatGPT or Gemini are just the tip of the iceberg. There is a whole vast, mysterious world underneath, and Vietnam can absolutely be the pioneer in discovering those wonders.
Second, don't think that being behind is a disadvantage - it is our special advantage! Being behind means that Vietnam can learn from the mistakes of the countries that have gone before, avoiding the "potholes" on the road. Moreover, because we are not bound by old thinking, we have within us freshness, creativity and the spirit of daring to think and dare to do. I experienced this when researching AI: a field I had never studied formally became the place where I achieved great success, simply because I was not limited by traditional paths. That is the power of being behind - no fear, no barriers!
Third, Vietnam has strengths in human resources in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) field. Vietnam’s high school education is quite good, but we need to invest heavily in higher education, universities and in-depth research. With a talented, enthusiastic young generation, always ready to conquer new heights, with the right investment, Vietnam will soon possess a team of world-leading AI experts.
Finally, Vietnam has an advantage that not every country has: flexibility. Many large countries like Japan have difficulty transitioning from traditional industries - such as automobile or electronics manufacturing - to AI. But Vietnam is different. We are not "stuck" in old legacies, so we can focus all our efforts on developing AI quickly and effectively. In the Asian region, besides China and India, Vietnam stands out with its outstanding human potential. If we know how to promote this strength, we will not only join the global AI game but also contribute to shaping the future of world technology.
Above, Dr. Le Viet Quoc mentioned opportunities, so what are the difficulties and challenges for Vietnam?
- To develop AI in Vietnam, I want to emphasize that people are the key factor. At the high school level, we have done very well in basic training, especially in natural sciences. But at the university level, everything needs a real revolution! University training is not just a matter of quantity but requires serious investment, focus, and a clear strategy. This process is not simple, it will take time to change and rebuild the appropriate program, but it is a necessary step to create a high-quality human resource team for AI.
Although the latecomer position has the advantages as I analyzed above, it also brings certain challenges. For example, our information technology infrastructure is still young. In developed countries, the infrastructure has developed remarkably - from cloud computing systems, databases to computing centers - ready to serve AI. But in Vietnam, building these things is both costly and risky. Large countries like the US or China have abundant resources, they are willing to spend billions of dollars to experiment, accepting failure in exchange for success. What about us? Pouring a huge amount of money into things that are "invisible to the naked eye" - like training data for AI, not a building or a road, is a difficult problem, requiring a long-term vision.
Not to mention, data is also a big barrier. The digitalization process in Vietnam has just begun, so the amount of high-quality data is still very limited. Think of a solid house: data, infrastructure, people - those are indispensable pillars. We are laying the first bricks, and I believe, with consensus, Vietnam's AI house will soon rise high.
Above, TS gave some pillars, so what is the most important factor to lay the foundation for AI development in Vietnam?
- To develop AI, we cannot focus on just one factor - it's like building a house with only one pillar, how can it be strong? A house needs many pillars to be strong, and for Vietnam, I believe that people are the most important pillar - or in other words, it is the valuable "human capital" that we possess.
At the high school level, we have done very well, but at the university level, things have not really broken through. It is time for a change! Vietnam needs to create excellent training programs so that young talents can not only shine domestically but also be capable of joining the world's leading technology corporations such as Google or OpenAI. Imagine a day when top AI research groups around the world have to admit: AI human resources from Vietnam are truly talented. That must be the goal we aim for!
But good people are not enough. Once we have bright "gems", we need an ecosystem to nurture them. What is this ecosystem? It is an environment where large foreign companies come to Vietnam to open research offices, where small startups have access to capital to develop, and where the technological infrastructure is strong enough to support all creative ideas. All must operate in harmony, like the pillars supporting a solid house. People are just a part of that ecosystem. For Vietnam to truly become a global AI destination, we need open policies, attract foreign investment, and create conditions for large corporations to set foot here.
Dr. Le Viet Quoc's journey at Google is a story that strongly inspires Vietnamese youth. Currently, the Government is calling on Vietnamese talents from all over the world to return home to join hands in developing science and technology. According to you, what needs to be done to realize this call?
- I believe the key lies in understanding the individual. Each person has their own passion: some aspire to teach, others dream of owning a business, and still others want to contribute in their own unique way. Therefore, Vietnam should focus on finding people whose passion can be fulfilled right at home - that is the first way to attract them.
Timing is also a key factor. Many overseas Vietnamese, especially researchers, often wonder: 'When is the right time to return? For them, family is always a tie. When their children are young, they want to be there to take care of them, but when they are grown up, that is the time when they are ready to devote themselves to their careers. Vietnam needs to seize this opportunity, target that group of talents and send a convincing invitation: Your homeland is waiting for you with its doors wide open!
But passion and timing are not enough - we need a clear strategy and vision. We cannot stop at empty calls. Vietnam must seriously invest in the working environment, in projects that are attractive enough for Vietnamese talents around the world to not only want to return, but even more so, want to return immediately to seize great opportunities. Most importantly, we must instill in them belief - the belief that Vietnam is not only a place to return to, but a land to contribute and shine.
In fact, many Vietnamese people abroad always cherish the desire to contribute to their homeland. They just need a "spark" - a favorable environment and worthy investment. If that can be done, I believe that the most talented minds will choose to return to their homeland.
Thank you very much "AI for Vietnam"!
Content: Vo Van Thanh
Photo: Hai Long
Video: Pham Tien
Design: Thuy Tien
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Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/nhung-bo-oc-o-thung-lung-silicon-va-tham-vong-dot-pha-ai-cho-viet-nam-20250317200924808.htm
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