AI development key for economy: experts

AI development can facilitate economic development, and good workforce training is among the key factors for developing AI, according to experts (Photo: svvn.tienphong.vn)

HCM City – Vietnam should use artificial intelligence in more areas to boost productivity and to improve people’s lives, experts have said.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy told a recent conference that AI had been receiving more and more attention in recent years, and, along with other modern technologies (such as big data and cloud computing), was changing people's lives and business activities.

COVID-19 was creating a push for faster digital transformation, and companies and researchers should consider how using AI solutions could help a recovery after the pandemic, he said.

Nguyen Viet Dung, director of the HCM City Department of Science and Technology, said the city was among the first in Vietnam to issue a programme to facilitate digital transformation, focusing on promoting AI usage.

Dr Stefan Hajkowicz of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation said AI could be used in many areas, pointing to how Australia did so in agriculture, mining and aviation.

It helped boost productivity, save labour cost and minimise risks to human workers.

Dr Dongwha Kum, director of the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology, said innovation would be important in order not to lag behind, and instead of looking for new technologies, Vietnam could look for new ways of using AI.

For instance, Korea had developed face-analysis system Poliface, which uses AI to help families look for children who went missing many years ago, and a Korean business was using AI to quickly manufacture COVID-19 test kits.

Yoshua Bengio, co-founder of Canadian AI company Element AI, said technology would be linked closer with economic development in the future, and so workers in the field of AI would need a good foundation in maths and computer science.

Assoc Prof Tran Minh Triet of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City said a wide range of data should be collected from users to better develop AI systems, citing the example of how data about students could be gathered from e-learning platforms to tailor education programmes.

AI development strategies in other countries mostly targeted solving of social problems and improve the lives of people, the business climate and the labour market, he said.

Dung hoped that government agencies, AI researchers and the international community would work together to help HCM City become a smart city in which AI would be used in many areas such as administration, public services and business activities.

The conference was held by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the HCM City People's Committee, and online newspaper VnExpress.