HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam has huge potential to become not only a strong user of AI but also a strong provider of AI solutions, datasets and native language models for the Southeast Asian region and beyond, according to a report released by Linux Foundation commissioned by Meta at the Vietnam AI Day on Friday.

The ongoing research report titled “The value of open source AI for APEC Economies” finds that open source AI is broadening access to technology, empowering entrepreneurs, SMEs, and researchers to innovate and thrive. This is encouraging significant economic and social opportunities for sectors such as agriculture, climate management, healthcare and education.

"It’s clear that AI has played a transformative role in Việt Nam. In particular, open source AI democratises access to technology, empowering small and medium-sized enterprises to deploy cost-effective, locally relevant AI solutions, and ensuring that the benefits of AI are accessible to all,” Lisa Koh, policy program manager at Meta, said.

According to the Vietnam AI Economy report, AI could deliver up to US$130 billion in benefits to Việt Nam by 2040.

At the event, Meta also shared a key update on Project ViGen, a groundbreaking partnership between Meta, the National Innovation Centre (NIC), and the AI for Vietnam Foundation, aiming to revolutionise Việt Nam's AI development and unlock transformative applications that drive economic growth and improve quality of life.

Despite being spoken by over 100 million people, Vietnamese is often overlooked by existing AI systems due to limited and biased datasets.

To address this gap, Project ViGen is dedicated to creating the most comprehensive, large-scale, and high-quality Vietnamese datasets ever built.

The new data sets are trained, fine-tuned and evaluated with a data pool of high-quality, comprehensive datasets contributed by research institutes, government agencies and universities across Việt Nam.

As a result, the datasets are reliable sources of information that reflect Việt Nam’s social, cultural and linguistic uniqueness.

"Artificial intelligence, particularly open-source AI, is a central pillar for Việt Nam's economic growth and global competitiveness. As we strive to become an 'AI nation' by 2030, it's crucial that global corporations like Meta provide open-source models that enable our businesses to develop and innovate on these platforms,” said Võ Xuân Hoài, Deputy Director of Vietnam National Innovation Centre. — VNS