HCMCity (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City has approved a programme to buildan eco-system for research into artificial intelligence (AI) development overthe next 10 years as part of its efforts to become a smart city and promotedigital transformation. 

Ithas in recent years adopted AI technologies in healthcare, education,transport, and information security.

Inhealthcare, AI is used for diagnosis and treatment of stroke at the People’sHospital 115 and the Gia An 115 Hospital and by many hospitals to writeprescriptions.

Thetechnology is also being trialled in cancer diagnosis and treatment at the HCMCity Oncology Hospital. 

DrThoai Nam of the Polytechnic University under the National University of HCMCity said AI is being applied in the transport sector.

Datacollected from cameras (such as vehicle type, density, volume, direction ofmovement) is sent to the city’s Smart Traffic Operations Centre, which uses AIalgorithms to analyse the GPS data from vehicles and smartphones to determinethe traffic situation and forecast possible congestion.

However,research and training in AI remains weak in HCM City compared to other placesin the world, experts said. 

DuongAnh Duc, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said of 45,000 ITbusinesses based in the city, only 2 percent have an investment of over 100billion VND (4.31 million USD) and the rest are micro or small- andmedium-sized enterprises, a challenge for AI application and digitaltransformation.

LeQuoc Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Information andCommunications, said the programme has set a goal for all governmentagencies to have shared and open databases to serve AI research anddevelopment. 

Thecity also wants to increase the number of AI start-ups and increaseinvestment in AI, and have businesses use AI for digital transformation toimprove their competitiveness. 

Underthe programme, nine projects will be undertaken, including those to develop anAI research and training team, set up digital infrastructure and improve humanresources in AI, and others.

Human resources

Anational master plan for developing IT human resources envisaged having onemillion workers in the sector by 2020, but only 600,000 IT students had beentrained at 400 higher education institutes and eight major IT training centresas of last year.

Morethan 70 percent of these students lack practical experience, and a mere 15percent of graduates meet their employers’ requirements and do not need muchfurther training, according to statistics from the Institute of InformationTechnology Strategy.

Vietnamhas more than 700 IT companies, 220 of them being foreign-owned, mostly basedin major cities and software parks. 

Despitethe huge likely demand for AI experts in future, the field has attracted littleattention in the country, and no university offers comprehensive courses in it.Most focus just on software. 

Expertssaid the city should invest in training and building an open-source database,and establish AI faculties at universities and develop new courses. 

Itshould set up AI hubs that include training centres linked with each otherthrough the city’s data centre and infrastructure.

Thecity’s rapid growth has worsened traffic congestion, flooding, pollution,infrastructure gaps, joblessness, and others problems, they said. 

Thecity has massive infrastructure needs but faces significant constraints infunding it, and AI can mitigate this problem process, they said. 

AItogether with other kinds of technologies such as machine learningwill enable machines to behave with human-like intelligence to learn andact intelligently, they added./.