HCMCity (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam should use artificial intelligence in moreareas 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 thatAI had been receiving more and more attention in recent years, and, along withother modern technologies (such as big data and cloud computing), was changingpeople's lives and business activities.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yoshua Bengio, co-founder of Canadian AI company Element AI, said technologywould be linked closer with economic development in the future, and so workersin 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 Citysaid a wide range of data should be collected from users to better develop AIsystems, citing the example of how data about students could be gathered frome-learning platforms to tailor education programmes.

AI development strategies in other countries mostly targeted solving of socialproblems and improve the lives of people, the business climate and the labourmarket, he said.

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

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