On August 12, at the 10th anniversary event of the Viettel Data Services and Artificial Intelligence Center (Viettel AI), the Chairman of the Corporation, Tao Duc Thang, revealed that he had asked ChatGPT to prepare his speech.
“Today, we gather here to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Data Services and Artificial Intelligence Center – Viettel AI. This marks not only our remarkable development and growth in the field of artificial intelligence but also demonstrates Viettel’s strong commitment to pioneering the application of advanced technology in practice, contributing to building a digital future for Vietnam.”
“Ten years ago, when Viettel AI was established, we faced many challenges and difficulties. But with determination, creativity, and unity, we overcame all obstacles and emerged as one of the leading units in artificial intelligence research and application in Vietnam and the region. Our achievements are not only the result of hard work but also a testament to the strategic vision and wise leadership of our management, along with strong support from our partners and customers.”
Mr. Thang mentioned that ChatGPT delivered the above speech within a few seconds.
From this, Mr. Thang emphasized that in the 4th Industrial Revolution, artificial intelligence is at the core of all core technologies and is an important foundation for transitioning the physical and virtual worlds in the future of humanity. Today, artificial intelligence has grown strong and pervasive in our lives. The market and application potential have widened, and the demand is increasing.
According to the Chairman of Viettel Group, this is a favorable condition for Viettel AI but also a challenge as many individuals and organizations will be involved in application development. Viettel AI will face intense global competition right here in Vietnam, from individuals to small organizations and cross-border technology companies.
What is Viettel AI?
Ten years ago, on August 14, 2014, Viettel restructured the Group’s Information Security Force and established the National Firewall Project Board with four members. Their most significant and complex task was to develop a system to monitor public opinion, control internet access nationwide, detect large-scale cyberattacks, and contribute to safeguarding the country’s cyber borders.
Less than a year later, in June 2015, the National Firewall Project Board was renamed the Viettel Cyber Center and took on a new responsibility: researching and developing a search engine system with the goal of replacing Google’s search engine and becoming Vietnam’s number one search tool.
What started as a board to execute a specific project gradually took on more challenging tasks, expanding its scope and stature over the past decade. In November 2023, the Group established the Data Services and Artificial Intelligence Center. Each name change in each phase signifies the affirmation of capabilities and the expectations and trust of the entire Group placed on the nearly 300 members of Viettel AI.
Viettel AI has created products that initially seemed impossible, and many thought it was better to buy them from foreign countries despite the high cost. The best example is Viettel Antispam SMS, Vietnam’s first intelligent spam message filtering system, later improved to block spam calls with Antispam Call.
Viettel was also the first network operator in Vietnam to successfully develop and master the technology for the Data Monitoring system, which helps Viettel understand each customer’s experience with its services. With this system, Viettel can find solutions to optimize its network and design services that match users’ habits and preferences. To complete this system, Viettel invested $3 million. However, if purchased from a foreign partner, the cost would have been $25-26 million, more than eight times higher.
Catching the technology wave and recognizing the importance of high-performance computing systems with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, Viettel decided to invest in a high-performance computing system capable of 20 million trillion calculations per second in 2020—the highest at that time, and no company in Vietnam had made such an investment. Thanks to this superior infrastructure, Viettel AI engineers can train multiple AI models simultaneously and continuously improve quality, shortening research time by up to tens of times.
Notable examples include the large-scale Vietnamese language model with 7 billion parameters, Vietnamese handwriting recognition technology, people and vehicle recognition technology, biometric identification technology, big data analytics technology, robot control technology, digital twin technology, etc.
Viettel AI’s technology products have gone beyond the Group and are trusted and used by leaders of the Party, State, ministries, local governments, and businesses nationwide, making significant contributions to the fight against and refutation of wrong and hostile views on the cyber domain and promoting national digital transformation.
Some notable products include the proactive communication system for monitoring social media for the General Department of Politics; the cyber warfare platform for Unit 86; and the software for synthesizing economic and social information to serve the direction and administration of Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee.
Especially noteworthy is Vietnam’s first virtual legal assistant, which possesses the country’s largest legal knowledge system, serving 100% of court officials and helping reduce 30% of their workload and time. Viettel AI has also successfully researched and developed a virtual assistant for civil servants and public employees, based on the Vietnamese language and data, ready to support one million civil servants nationwide, and aiming for every Vietnamese citizen to have a virtual assistant.
