Vietnam’s conglomerate VinGroup announced on Wednesday the official launch of an artificial intelligence (AI) research institute tasked with putting Vietnam on the global map of AI science.

VinAI Research is managed by VinGroup’s software arm VinTech, which specializes in developing AI products, software programs, and new-generation materials.

It is headed by Dr. Bui Hai Hung, one of the world’s leading AI researchers and a staff research scientist for Google’s DeepMind AI project.

Hung, 46, has nearly 100 scientific papers published in professional journals and more than ten technology patents evaluated in the U.S.

He led a multi-institution research team from Stanford, MIT and Berkeley in developing probabilistic inference technologies for understanding user activities during CALO, a project that spun off Apple’s virtual assistant Siri.

Hung is also on the editorial board for the Artificial Intelligence, a leading journal for publication of results of current research in AI.

VinAI Research is tasked with studying fundamental scientific issues in AI that involves machine learning, deep learning and application algorithms in a variety of areas such as processing and understanding images, videos, languages, human voices, and users’ interactional behaviors.

The institute will prioritize looking into issues that are of global interest or issues of vital importance to Vietnam, VinGroup said in a statement.

Its ultimate goal is to train a core team of leading experts on AI research for VinGroup and Vietnam through nurturing AI talents in the country.

At the same time, VinAI Research will use its knowledge to provide consultancy and technology transfer for local corporations and partners.

VinAI Research is VinGroup’s next step in realizing its vision of becoming global technology power, following the establishment of its VinTech, Big Data Institute, and Innovation Foundation.

VinGroup’s Big Data Institute has already launched a US$4.5 million genome-mapping project aimed at producing the first complete sequences of the Vietnamese genome – the largest of its kind across Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, VinTech has plans to build a global network of offices, with the first launched in Daegu City, South Korea in March 2019, to research applied Internet of Things technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics, smart manufacturing plants, as well as develop products and solutions for vehicles and transportation.

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