The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Chapter 2 concluded successfully on July 12, 2024, bringing together over 600 attendees, including industry experts and business leaders from the AI ecosystem across Asia.
This special event explored the latest innovative AI technologies, provided deep insights, facilitated meaningful discussions, and helped forge valuable connections with like-minded professionals and AI leaders.
We also had the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with Launch JDI leaders Frank Lee, Founder and Managing Director of JDI, and Daryl Chung, Co-founder and Business Director of JDI.
From left to right: Mr. Daryl Chung, Co-founder and Business Director of JDI, and Mr. Frank Lee, Founder and Managing Director of JDI, giving a welcome speech to the attendees. (Photo: JDI)
Q: Around one year ago the Future of Artificial Intelligence: Chapter 1 was held in HCMC. What are the key takeaways from that special event?
Daryl Chung: I think there are three very simple takeaways that I want to share. Firstly, there is good cross-border collaboration between Vietnam and Singapore, which gave us the confidence to come back with Chapter 2 this year.
Number two is that we have to embrace the future of AI. There are significant synergies between Singapore and Vietnam, which is why we have Chapter 2 this year.
The third and most important thing is that our platform actually creates value. All the stakeholders involved, be it our sponsors, speakers, exhibitors, or attendees, have told us they would like to see Chapter 2.
Attendees actively participating in a series of in-depth discussions. (Photo: JDI)
Q: New AI topics have been added since Chapter 1, including AI’s role in sustainable development, enhancing consumer experiences in retail, and its impact on healthcare. Could you elaborate on these additions and how they reflect the changing AI business landscape?
Daryl Chung: Right, so the reason for the new topics is not because this has just come about, but really it’s an extension of Chapter 1 where we have triply scaled or even quadruply scaled our event in terms of size. So we are able to fit in more conference topics in this year’s agenda.
But more importantly, I think we were very careful and very deliberate in selecting topics that were pertinent not just for the Vietnam ecosystem, but for Singapore and Southeast Asia as well.
We wanted to pick out key topics where there is a very obvious influence in terms of AI. There might be a lot of excitement, but there are a lot of questions that are yet to be answered, and we want to use our event as a platform to do so.
A panel discussion from Cloud4C, Intel, SAP Vietnam, and IBP, where our guest speakers shared their insights on AI. (Photo: JDI)
Q: As the Director of Business Development at JDI and a firm believer in innovation for a better world, how do you foresee AI impacting the global and regional economies? Which economic sectors do you believe will experience the most significant changes driven by AI?
Daryl Chung: AI has been around for quite some time now, right? It’s just that it’s gotten very exciting again with the recent breakthroughs. I think that some of us are excited, some of us are fearful, and some of us do not know what to think about it yet. Again, the reason we have taken it upon ourselves to organize such events is for two main reasons.
Number one is we want to constantly inform and educate the ecosystem on how to embrace AI, despite the excitement and the challenges.
Number two, we are not doing this alone. We are bringing the ecosystem together, not just within Vietnam, but also with Singapore, to foster synergies between both markets.
So this is what we feel about AI: it’s time to embrace the change. I really think that in Singapore and Vietnam, AI is not just going to be led by the private sector, but it’s increasingly becoming a national interest.
For Vietnam and Singapore, the sectors likely to be impacted are going to be the key sectors important for the nation’s economy and sovereignty.
Additionally, I think there will be low-hanging fruits where there are obvious use cases for AI in sectors where it cannot be ignored and becomes a no-brainer. However, there might be missing pieces such as policy, funding, and other factors that will need to be addressed. Those are the sectors where we will see AI blossoming in the near future.
Attendees exploring the latest cutting-edge technologies in the Exhibition hall. (Photo: JDI)
Q: Mr. Frank Lee has over a decade of active contributions to the region’s tech and startup ecosystem. Based on your experiences, how have you observed the evolution of this ecosystem, and what are your predictions for its future development?
Frank Lee: Ten years is a long time, and ten years have flown by very quickly for Vietnam. When I bring people who were previously familiar with Vietnam into the market ten years later, they come in and realize, wow, things have changed so much.
We have witnessed the evolution. Ten years ago, when we came here, we were focused on very simple software development at an early stage, creating small software products. But over the past ten years, we have seen the growth of the tech ecosystem, and the rise of data scientists and analysts, making this ecosystem much bigger, more comprehensive, and more complex, ready to take on AI.
AI certainly has a lot of programming behind it, a lot of LRM, data science, and analytics. I think Singapore and Vietnam can work together to accelerate this scene even further as we progress along the super scale of AI.
From left to right: Mr. Frank Lee, Founder and Managing Director of JDI, Mr. Pang Te Cheng, Consul-General of the Republic of Singapore in Ho Chi Minh City, and Mr. Daryl Chung, Co-founder and Business Director of JDI. (Photo: JDI)
Q: Vietnam’s government prioritizes digital transformation, with the digital economy growing by 14.26% in 2023 and a projected CAGR of 8.9% for 2022-2026 (FT-Omdia report). Do you find Vietnam’s digital environment conducive to AI, and what are your recommendations for accelerating AI technologies in the country?
Frank Lee: From what we see now, the industries in Vietnam are undergoing a period of digital transformation, and AI is a complementary factor in this process. Digital transformation and AI are evolving together within the ecosystem. As companies advance on the digitization roadmap, they will face numerous questions about how to integrate AI into their strategies.
We will definitely see AI impacting many of the verticals important to the industry, including educational technologies, smart nation initiatives, property development, and more. All of these areas can leverage AI to enhance efficiency in various ways.
Guest speakers discussing the impact of AI within the EdTech ecosystem. (Photo: JDI)
Q: Vietnam’s semiconductor industry is set for strong growth due to investment diversification from China and its rare earth reserves. Is this industry also a fertile ground for AI technologies?
Frank Lee: AI and semiconductors are closely linked. We have seen the rise of companies like Intel and NVIDIA, along with many other chipset manufacturers. Essentially, a significant amount of computing power is required for the development and advancement of AI.
As a result, the semiconductor industry is expected to flourish. There will be increasing demand for the establishment of semiconductor factories, including those focused on chipset manufacturing, to support the global progression of AI.
Intel’s booth drawing interests from participants. (Photo: JDI)
Q: How do you rate the potential for AI-related cooperation between Vietnam and Singapore, especially given the availability of a connectivity framework agreement signed between the two countries in 2005?
Daryl Chung: I think that currently a lot of efforts are private sector-led. However, what we showed at the conference is that there are many opportunities and synergies for collaboration. For example, Dr. Leslie Teo and his team at AI Singapore are working on building a Southeast Asia LLM, “Sea Lion.” This is one example of how cooperation can work.
At present, it is mostly private sector-led, but we are working to bring together different stakeholders, including big companies, fast-growing startups, the Singapore Chamber of Commerce Vietnam, and various associations, along with some government agencies or organizations that report directly to government agencies. Our goal is to explore what we can achieve together.
Frank Lee: I was recently with the Minister of Education in Singapore, Mr. Chan Chun Sing. He is also concerned about how the next generation can be exposed to AI and how education can be supported by AI.
Mr. Chan Chun Sing talks about the “pedagogy of one.” The pedagogy of one means that everybody can use and advance their learning according to their own speed. The fast learner can move faster, while the slow learner can progress more gradually as they learn.
So all of this requires AI to guide the person and allow them to move at their own pace. We will see a lot of such implementations of AI through the hands of the government, pushing it down to the industries so that it benefits everybody.
Dr. Leslie Teo, Senior Director of AI Products at AI Singapore, sharing his insights on the emerging opportunities for AI in Southeast Asia. (Photo: JDI)
Q: While AI brings undeniable benefits, it also raises concerns among businesses and employees. Traditional companies struggle to adapt, and job opportunities are being replaced by technology. What are the key pros and cons of AI, and how can these conflicts be reconciled?
Daryl Chung: I think we have to adopt a mentality that can drive us towards an environment where there are more pros than cons. AI is here to stay; AI is not going away.
It is perfectly normal for individuals, companies, business owners, and different types of organizations—public and private—to feel this way.
But I think we have to step beyond it. We have to find a way to collectively progress and move forward, using AI for the right reasons and for a better tomorrow.
Frank Lee: JDI focuses on disruptive innovations. What we see and identify is that AI is a disruptive innovation that will change the world for the better. So we are all here to try and adopt it more effectively.
Of course, AI can be a double-edged sword. If used for the wrong reasons, it can also be very powerful in negative ways. This raises important topics on ethics and how we can use AI for the betterment of mankind.
These are the issues that we also need to seriously address as we continue this AI journey, focusing on how to drive AI responsibly.
Attendees engaging in Business Matching sessions. (Photo: JDI)
Q: As JDI is a venture catalyst driving innovations forward, do you foresee the development of tech powerhouses in the region?
Frank Lee: Yes, definitely. So as we all know, AI involves not only programming but also the potential to simplify programming tasks. For example, one of our business units, Tech JDI, is also looking at how we can use AI to make our software development much easier.
How can we embrace this technology to make everybody’s work easier? Making everybody’s work easier—that is what we need to focus on. Rather than focusing on how AI will disrupt us, it is for us to see how we can use AI to make ourselves 2 times, 5 times, or 10 times more efficient. So we can all progress mankind together at a faster speed.
Mr. Pang Te Cheng, Mr. Frank Lee, and Mr. Daryl Chung visiting other venues at the event. (Photo: JDI)
Q: Are there other issues related to AI or the conference that you want to convey to our readers?
Daryl Chung: As cliché as it sounds, I think AI will not replace us; it will replace those who don’t use AI. So again, I believe that collectively, we need to drive towards a state where there are more pros than cons. We need to embrace AI for the right reasons, and we need to embrace AI for a better tomorrow.
Frank Lee: I echo the same thing. Basically, AI is here to stay. AI is a strong tool, and we need to use this powerful tool to ensure that all of us can advance ourselves. The thing is, if we don’t focus on the adoption of AI, there will be other elements—bad elements—that will be using AI.
For example, we’ve been talking to cybersecurity experts about hackers using AI to make their work much easier. Over time, we will see a challenge between the black and the white, the legal and the illegal, in terms of how we can use AI for the better.
So instead of us losing the war, we need to come in here to adopt AI first so that we can keep this tool under control.
Attendees discussing with each other. (Photo: JDI)
Charting the Path Forward
The conclusion of The Future of Artificial Intelligence event marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter. Launch JDI is committed to fostering strategic collaborations between Vietnam, Singapore, and ASEAN, harnessing AI’s full potential to revolutionize how we work and live.
Looking ahead, we are planning even more groundbreaking projects that will push the boundaries of innovation. Stay tuned for what’s next and discover how you can be a part of this exciting journey.
For more insightful programs and comprehensive services, please visit our website or contact us at [email protected] for a complimentary consultation.
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