Halong Bay, Vietnam
AFP via Getty Images
I just returned from Vietnam touring, and I had the pleasure of meeting the CEO and Founder, of VinAI, Dr. Hung Bui (former Google DeepMind) in Hanoi, a vibrant city with a population of eight million, 6.4 million vehicles, including 5.6 million motorcycles.
The energy one feels walking around the Old Quarter is full of sensory experiences – the delicious aroma of Pho soup or Banhmi sandwiches, are easily accessible street foods, listening to the hustle and bustle of local retailers selling their wares, innovative cafes serving egg coffee, are all experiences in Hanoi that are unique and memorable. I can hardly wait to return.
I wanted to ensure that during this trip, I had an opportunity to meet some of the illuminary AI leaders during my visit, and having just written a Forbes article on Vietnam’s leadership in AI, I was fortunate to receive a LinkedIn message from Dr. Hung Bui, while he was on a return flight from San Francisco to Hanoi. He had just read my article, and was curious why I was writing about Vietnam, so we agreed to meet in the Old Quarter at a lovely boutique hotel, called The Oriental Jade where we were staying.
This article summarizes my rich conversation with Dr. Hung Bui which he was so authentically willing to share.
Profiling great leaders helps us learn and advance our collective knowledge and his story demonstrates leadership and passion for making his roots stronger, and in my short time in our interview together, I experienced a variety of leadership behaviours: authenticity and transparency, kindness, storytelling and communication skills, and humbleness. Dr. Hung Bui is creating a legacy for the next AI generation in Vietnam to be bolder and stronger – and the results of their success in the international research community is inspiring.
Can you tell me about VinAI and a bit of its background?
VINAI is one of the world’s top 20 Artificial Intelligence research-based companies developing world-class products and services. VinAI has over 250 dedicated resources, of which over 200 are AI scientists, SW engineers, or AI interns. Their vision is to transform our state-of-the-art AI research into impactful technology solutions for the global market. The company’s head office is located in Hanoi, Vietnam, with additional technology hubs across the US and Australia. It’s strategic funding is from the VinGroup, one of the largest conglomerates in Asia, and they devote all their resources to turning innovative ideas into reality and building a better future for everyone.
What is your Vision?
“Our vision is to democratize AI research and development in countries like Vietnam and other similar countries. By pushing the frontiers of AI and translating AI research into answers to real-world problems, we bring the benefit and accessibility of AI technology to everyone regardless of their geography.”
What are your growth goals?
“We aim to be the number one AI deep-tech company in the South East-Asia region (one of the world’s fastest growing economic regions). Our strategy is to unlock the huge potential in the pool of talents in this region by nurturing the culture of research and innovation, and bring the best minds to work on cutting-edge AI products that are highly commercially relevant in both the local and the global markets. Our competitive advantage stems from our speed, agility and the ability to compete with similar global AI outfits at a fraction of their operating cost.”
What are the top 3 challenges in building a great company in Vietnam in the AI Tech Field?
“ I knew the creation of VinAI would be an immense challenge, but the end product would be worth it. Just about everything that we did at VinAI were first in Vietnam. Some of the specific challenges included:
1. Set uncompromised world-class standards. Build and instill the culture of research and innovation – “yes we can invent it here”.
2. Solve the talent problem via a strategic hiring and training program designed to unlock the untapped local STEM talent pool.
3. Identify and focus on problems commercially relevant to both the local and global market.”
Can you elaborate more on your ambitious goals?
“Right from the beginning, we set and try to maintain a world-class standard in everything that we do. We also need to build and instill the culture of research and innovation – “yes, we can invent it here”. I envisage VinAI as a global brand, not only focusing on Vietnam, but also addressing global needs. Technology is not limited to the borders of any country but has the power to make our world better.
AI R&D requires a lot of outstanding talents. We need to solve the talent problem via a strategic hiring and training program designed to unlock the untapped local STEM talent pool. Vietnam is fortunate to have a large and talented IT workforce, who are ready and willing to learn, however there is a very limited number of experts and experienced AI employees ready to work on research and development. This challenge also resulted in the creation of the VinAI residency program, which began in 2019 with the aim to nurture the next generation of AI experts by exposing them to intensive project-based training and state-of-the-art facilities. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to bring together over 200 Ph.D.s, M.S.s, and Experts in Machine Learning, AI, Statistics, Optimization, and Autonomous Systems with hands-on experience in building AI products.
Find the right practical and commercially relevant problems to solve. To do this, we had to ensure quality and user experience must be the top priority when creating our AI products and solutions. Furthermore, to exploit our competitive advantage, our strategy is to identify and focus on problems highly commercially relevant to both the local and the global market.
Now in 2023, four years on, I’m very happy to see the fruits of what we’ve sown and extremely proud when the world has started to recognize the potential of what we have started. [highlight VinAI achievement here: reaching the top 20 global companies in AI research capabilities, publishing more than 110 research articles all in the most prestigious AI conferences, very successful demo of world-first product feature at CES 2023, trained more than 80 AI residents in our world-class AI residency program.”
What are some of the advantages of building out an AI Research and Product Innovation Center in Vietnam?
“In terms of advantages, Vietnam boasts young IT human resources, and STEM education is extremely popular. The young generation has talent, enthusiasm, and the ability and desire to learn very quickly. Vietnam is fortunate to have a large and talented IT workforce. By addressing these challenges and fully embracing the potential of AI, I have high hopes and confidence that Vietnam can become a leader in the field and reap the rewards of this technology.
In recent years, Vietnam has seen significant progress in the field of AI, with the government making efforts to advance the technology industry and invest in research and development by implementing policies to support the growth of the technology sector and nurture AI talent in the field of AI.”
How knowledgeable do you find Americans in doing business in your country and how can we all improve to foster stronger relations?
“I’m surprised to find out that in the ranking of countries that make the largest investment in Vietnam thus far, the US is nowhere to be seen near the top, ranking even below the Netherlands, and far from the top countries investing the most in Vietnam (Korea, Singapore, China, Japan, etc). I hope the situation will change for the richest country in the world.
Vietnam is a rapidly developing country with the literacy rate reaching 97.75% in 2021, also ranked 50th out of 163 countries in safety according to Global Peace Index and 44/132 in the Global Innovation Index. Vietnam has established itself as a stable, rapidly developing, and high growth destination with the availability of skilled labor and investment-friendly policies for North American businesses and investment.
To foster stronger relations between North American and Vietnamese businesses, I feel it is important to focus on building trust, communication, and mutual understanding. This can be achieved through more joint science and technology programs, joint business ventures, and partnerships. US is the number one world leader in tech and AI, and the global US big tech companies are what young talents in Vietnam all look up to, but I remembered when I was working at the big tech companies in Silicon Valley, I rarely saw Vietnam in the news. I think it is already changing. Just over a year ago, the first direct flight between Vietnam and the US started service between Ho Chi Minh City, the biggest tech hub in Vietnam and San Francisco. I think that flight will be enjoyed by many tech workers in the near future. And thanks to the pandemic, our habit of doing business has changed. It has now become a common practice to jump on a video call to talk to someone else on the other side of the Pacific. These simple things are helping us a great deal in improving communication and trust with our North American and other global partners.”
Your operating division is part of the Vin Group. what are the advantages of being under the Vin Group and how is this supporting your vision goals?
“With strategic funding from VinGroup, Vietnam’s largest conglomerate, we have been privileged enough to have been able to devote all our resources to turning innovative ideas into reality and building a better future for everyone. Our positioning as part of the VinGroup ecosystem has meant that we have been able to access and collaborate on and with numerous other solutions and areas within the same ecosystem. Current collaborations and solutions VinAI is conducting with fellow members of the Vingroup ecosystem broadly range from undertaking research with educational institutions, creating AI home security systems within smart cities and luxury resorts, to our self-made AI products being used across a variety of EV car models.”
Was it valuable spending 15 years in the USA before returning to Vietnam?
“Absolutely. Without the years of experience in knowing how the system works at the top research and industry companies, it would be difficult to have both the vision and the confidence in the execution. The latter is actually very important because our team needs to have the confidence in setting the goal to do world-class AI research and development, something that has not been done before in their country. The Silicon Valley and research network also helps a great deal, as I was able to tap into the network of the best people and advisors, who were first surprised by my decision to quit DeepMind, but later on became very supportive when they learned about the kind of impact that I helped create here.”
What made you return to your native country?
“In August 2018, the National Innovation Center (NIC) and various Vietnamese government ministries organized an event called the ‘Vietnam Innovation Network’. The event gathered numerous prominent scientists and technology leaders of Vietnamese origin, from around the world.
It was during this event that for the first time, I put forward the idea of creating a world-class AI research lab in Vietnam. I asked the question if a developing country like Vietnam could be competitive on the world stage in cutting-edge AI research and development. Would Vietnam be able to tap into the $US15.7 trillion projected for the AI global economy by 2030?
These questions were unchallenged and answers were perplexing. I was lucky enough to be connected with VinGroup, so my broad ideas and thoughts mentioned above then turned into a concrete proposal.
Whilst this was all happening, I was still located in Silicon Valley and working out of the DeepMind office at Googleplex in Mountain View. I had to decide whether or not I would take on this new challenge in my home country of Vietnam. I quickly concluded that for this new venture to be worth my time and effort, it would need to have a significant impact on the AI and tech industry in Vietnam. The list I created eventually transformed into the current missions of VinAI, all of them are things that have never been done in Vietnam before.”
How are your goals now coming to fruition – can you put more product innovation context around your goals – share some of the results from the investments?
“We have been able to now share with confidence that our goals are all coming to fruition to:
1. Conduct highest standard world-class research putting Vietnam on the AI world map.
2. Attract AI R&D talent requires top world-class talent, and setting up support systems so they are vigorously trained is key.
3. Exploit the narrow gap between AI research and applications to build commercial AI products for not only Vietnam but also the global market.
These all are very challenging goals, but we have advanced all of these goals very successfully and have a great deal of pride in knowing we are making a difference to innovation in Vietnam, but also giving our people a reason to remain in Vietnam and work on innovative and rewarding programs.”
What are some of the key lessons that you have learned in building VinAI?
“1. Take advantage of the pioneering vision to build a strong team: As the founder of an AI company, I learned that it’s important to surround yourself with a team of skilled individuals who share your vision and can help you achieve your goals. This means finding the people with expertise in AI, software development, data science, and business strategy. Building a strong team is critical to success in the tech industry, where innovation and speed to market are essential. In the case of VinAI, we learned that as the AI pioneer, we get access to the very best talents in the country. A good mix between a small number of senior experienced people and many of the young talents can make the team very productive. With access to the outstanding local talents, we are able to compete on the global stage at a fraction of the operating cost of other similar-sized global AI competitors.
2. Set world-class standards and Stay Focused on Your Mission: Being in a country like Vietnam, it is easy to lose sight of the big global picture and the plain fact that whether we want it or not, we all have to compete at the global stage. It’s important to have a clear mission and stay focused on it. At VinAI, our team doesn’t stop at world-class AI research and development. We also focused on how to build and deploy full-fledged cutting-edge AI solutions that can help solve global customers problems.
3. Embrace a Culture of Innovation: Innovation is at the heart of any successful tech company, and this is especially true in the AI industry. At VinAI, we nurture the innovation culture by instilling the mindset that “yes we can invent it here”. We prioritize innovation and encourage our team to think creatively and outside the box. This has allowed us to stay ahead of the curve and develop AI solutions that are truly innovative and ground-breaking.
4. Be Agile and Adapt Quickly: The tech industry moves quickly, and coupling that with the resource constraint of being in Vietnam, it’s important to be agile and adapt quickly to changes in the market. This means being willing to pivot your strategy if necessary, and being flexible enough to adjust your plans as new opportunities arise. At VinAI, we are constantly evaluating our strategy and making adjustments as needed to stay ahead of the competition.
5. Leverage Research Excellence to Build Strong Global Peer-Partnerships: Global partnerships are extremely important to our success in the global market. Our outstanding world-class AI research capabilities capture the attention of the biggest partners and make them treat us as technical peers, not just as any unknown regional company. Rather than being on one-sided sales calls with the big players, our AI capabilities open up opportunities to truly partner and collaborate with them. Through these strong peer-partnerships, we have been able to develop new technologies that we may not have been able to on our own, and expand our reach to the much bigger global market.
Overall, my experience building VinAI has taught me that success in the tech industry in this region requires a combination of persistent innovation, agility, and strong global partnerships. It is a lot of hard work, but if successful in the end, the impact will be very significant, not only for the company, for Vietnam but also setting an example for the AI tech industry in the region and globally.”
What are some of the personal lessons that you have learned in your journey?
“In general, I would say the overall area where I’ve learned the most is the value of experimentation and how necessary it is to take risks – mainly calculated ones! These calculated risks involved trying out new approaches, exploring new research avenues, and learning from both successes and failures along the way.
Another essential learning for me personally is the importance of collaboration and teamwork in the creation of VinAI. My incredibly talented employees and I have worked closely together to overcome challenges, pooling our collective expertise, and make progress in our research and product development efforts.
Finally, the most important mission was remaining focused on our core mission and goals. This specifically meant advancing the state of AI research and development, building innovative technologies, and contributing to the growth of Vietnam’s tech ecosystem. Overall, I credit the success to a combination of experimentation, collaboration, and focus, all of which helped me to learn and grow during the creation of VinAI.”
Can you share the highlights of your career journey in the AI field and where do you think you learned the most and why?
“I first learned about AI in undergraduate class in the early 90s. They were fascinating enough that eventually led me to a career in AI ever since. I came to SRI (Stanford Research Institute) AI Center in 2003. At SRI, I led the multi-institution research team in developing probabilistic inference technologies for understanding the user activities during the DARPA funded CALO project (at the time, the largest AI project in history, also known as the project that spun off Siri). Also led large research teams in video understanding (MindsEye) and natural language understanding (Machine Reading) projects. This is where I got immersed in the broad spectrum of AI problems, leading the best AI teams working on machine learning to computer vision to natural language understanding.
Adobe and DeepMind are where I embarked on the deep learning revolution, focusing on unsupervised representation learning for both images, texts and for decision making.
Today, I’m proud to say that VinAI is one of the highlights of my career, having managed to build from a scratch a top 20 global AI research company, and with the constraint of being in Vietnam. This is also where I experienced the power and excitement of agile and well-run teams who can turn research ideas into full-fledged deployed products in extremely fast turnaround time.”
What are some of the research accomplishments that VinAI has achieved in the last 4 years?
“Over a period of just over three years, VinAI jumped to the 20th rank in the list of Global AI Research Companies by Thundermark Capital in 2022 and was the only South-East Asian (SEA) representative in the list. To date, VinAI has published more than 110 publications in only the very best AI venues, spanning across three core areas of AI: Machine Learning (ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR), Computer Vision (CVPR, ICCV, ECCV), Natural Language Processing (ACL, EMNLP, InterSpeech), representing one of the highest concentrations of AI expertise in the region. Not so coincidentally, Vietnam, which had not appeared on the global AI research list and rankings before, jumped to the 26th worldwide in the same year.”
Product Development – Smart Mobility and Smart Edge:
“VinAI’s smart mobility focuses on creating products that save lives, especially in Southeast Asia, where traffic and mobility pain points are notorious. It is estimated that in 2019, 7600 fatalities occurred on Vietnam roads with 60% as a direct result of driver distractions and 20% of driver drowsiness. This is uniquely challenging due to mixed mode of travel, traffic conditions, local conditions and unexpected behaviors of commuters. In this space, VinAI’s research translates to products that, quite simply, save lives.
The Driver and Occupants Monitoring (DMS) technology uses low-cost cameras and AI to analyze driver behaviors to prevent driving errors and ensure safe driving. VinAI also introduced the world-first Auto Mirror Adjustment (AMA) technology at CES 2023, which uses infrared camera to predict head position precisely and automatically adjust the mirror to an optimal position. The full range of DMS includes Facial Recognition for theft prevention, Driver Drowsiness Warning, Advanced Driver Distraction Warning, and dangerous behavior detection.
The Advanced Surround View Monitoring System (ASVM) offers ‘Jelly View’ a cool 360-degree surround view that makes the car look transparent. The system also detects obstacles in “blind” areas, and runs on different hardware platforms.
The Smart Edge division of VinAI created GuardPro, an AI platform that detects noncompliance, identifies security concerns, and sends real-time notifications. VinAI’s research and products improve safety, compliance, and convenience for global consumers in their daily business operations.”
Grow the next generation of Vietnamese AI talent:
“The VinAI Residency Program, our AI talent incubation training program, seeks to exploit the vast yet untapped talent pool in Vietnam and nurture the next generation of AI experts by exposing them to intensive project-based training and state-of-the-art facilities. Up to now, residents at VinAI have published more than 40 publications at top-tier international AI conferences. More than 30 VinAI residents have received full Ph.D. scholarships, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each, and are studying for PhDs at prestigious universities around the world.”
Conclusion
I hope that you have enjoyed learning more about Dr. Hung Bui’s career journey as he is modernizing Vietnam, a country that he loves. VinAI is providing new learning experiences for local talent, and motivating many residents in North America to return to Vietnam and together strengthen Vietnam’s GDP.
I look forward to writing more articles to share about Vietnam, an amazing country with such great beauty that it literally takes your breath away. From seeing the fresh green shoots of the terraced rice fields, to riding a motorcycle weaving in the traffic that looks like an un-orchestrated ballet, to watching scientists test electric cars using AI , Vietnam offers a breadth of memorable lasting sensations.
I can hardly wait to return for another conversation with Dr. Hung Bui to see what he has created next – as it is very clear, there are many more inventions already jamming in his brilliant mind.
What Dr. Hung Bui and his team have accomplished, with the support of The Vin Group, is an inspirational story. Simply in one word, Remarkable.
More About Dr. Hung Bui
Dr. Hung Bui is the founding director of VinAI Research, Vietnam. VinAI ranks in the world’s top 20 AI industrial labs based on research output in top conferences like ICML and NeurIPS. Before returning to Hanoi — the city where Hung was born and founding VinAI, he was at Google DeepMind, Adobe Research, and Nuance Natural Language Understanding Lab. He also spent almost 10 years at the AI Center, SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute). At SRI, he led the multi-institution research team in developing probabilistic inference technologies for understanding the user activities during the CALO project (at the time, the largest AI project in history, also known as the project that spun off Siri). Going further back in time, he was also an assistant professor at Curtin University, Australia (2000-2003), Ph.D graduate in computer science (Curtin, 1998), a graduate from Hanoi University of Science, High School for Gifted Students, and a Math Olympian (silver medal, IMO 1989). He also holds an adjunct Professorship at Monash University in Australia. You can also find him on linkedin.
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