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The last time I was in Vietnam was over a decade ago. While studying for university exams, a group of friends and I booked a trip to Ho Chi Minh on a whim – a post-exam trip, we justified. We also spent a few days in the nearby city of Da Lat.
While my memories of Vietnam are fuzzy, I’ve been told countless times to revisit the bustling and thriving city of Ho Chi Minh, a place for foodies, coffee and beer lovers, and techies alike.
As AI fever sweeps across the globe, it’s no surprise that Vietnamese firms are also racing to get to the top of the field. One of the contenders, tech firm VNG, owns the popular messaging app Zalo, which locals use more than Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
The tech unicorn is building large language models targeted at Vietnamese users based on open-source code from US tech firms. It has also incorporated AI into its various products – from games, and payments, to cloud infrastructure.
While VNG’s advantage of having a user base of over 75 million in the country – and therefore a large data source – could set it up for success, its chief executive, Le Hong Minh, has acknowledged the risks of investing in costly AI projects.
No one said the race to the top was going to be easy.
Today we look at:
- Key players in Vietnam’s AI race
- Binance’s top executive in the Philippines exits from the firm
- Other newsy highlights such as Indonesia’s Minister of Trade denying that TikTok is in the process of obtaining an ecommerce permit and the potential ban facing the short-video app in the Philippines
Premium summary
Vietnamese firms compete for AI crown
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Based on the success of ChatGPT globally, Vietnamese companies like Vingroup, tech unicorn VNG, and consumer conglomerate Masan Group are betting on AI.
PhoGPT, a model pre-trained specifically for the Vietnamese language, was launched by the research arm of Vingroup in November and is just one of the many examples of Vietnamese firms getting on board and experimenting with the new tech.
Binance’s top Philippine executive bows out
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