AI Singapore and Vietnam cooperate to promote Southeast Asia technology autonomy
(Dan Tri) - On July 17, Mr. William Tjhi, Head of AI Products at AI Singapore, participating in developing the SEA-LION language model, will be present in Hanoi within the framework of Vietnam AI Innovation Challenge 2026.
His destination is 48 hours of continuous competition at Vietnam AI Innovation Challenge (VAIC) 2026.
Desire for technological autonomy
Before joining AI Singapore, Mr. William led the natural language processing (NLP) department at Traveloka, a large online travel platform in Indonesia. Here, he realized that although global AI models worked well in English, they faced many limitations due to the linguistic and cultural diversity of Southeast Asia.
According to Mr. William, if only dependent on English-speaking AI models, Southeast Asia may be left behind in the global technology wave, unable to fully depend on AI models built elsewhere, in other languages.
That was part of the motivation for the birth of SEA-LION, a large language model (LLM) developed by AI Singapore to understand Southeast Asian languages and contexts. To develop a project of this scale, Singapore needs partners with the same capabilities and orientation, and Vietnam is one of those pieces.
Vietnam AI Innovation Challenge 2026 aims to develop large-scale core AI applications (AI-native) (Photo: BTC).
Vietnam: A piece of the puzzle in the regional AI alliance
In the eyes of many international technology experts, Vietnam is considered to have the potential to develop AI thanks to a large force of engineers with a good mathematical foundation, an open source culture that promotes the spirit of technological autonomy, and a fast speed of applying AI to economic problems compared to the region.
What is missing is a platform to connect Vietnamese engineers with real global-scale problems, international resources and foreign experts.
VAIC 2026 is designed to partially fill that gap, where international developers, businesses and AI experts discuss solutions that can be applied on a regional scale.
Beyond a competition: The beginning of a sustainable ecosystem
With AI Singapore, Mr. William's trip to Hanoi could be the beginning of a longer cooperation process, based on his assessment of the capabilities of Vietnamese engineers.
Outstanding teams at VAIC 2026 have the opportunity to join the regional AI research network, contribute to projects such as SEA-LION, and work and exchange directly with the team at AI Singapore and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
According to Mr. William, the goal of the collaboration is to find people who can continue to contribute to the development of AI in Southeast Asia, based on their understanding of languages, cultures and indigenous communities.
Opportunities for the young generation of Vietnamese engineers
On July 17, Vietnam AI Innovation Challenge 2026 will take place. The participation of Mr. William Tjhi with AI Singapore shows that Vietnam has the opportunity to assert its role in the regional AI map.
According to Mr. William, the future of AI in Southeast Asia needs to be built by those who understand this region well. And the journey to create that common ecosystem is preparing its first steps in Hanoi.
Information about Vietnam AI Innovation Challenge 2026 (VAIC 2026)
Vietnam AI Innovation Challenge 2026 (VAIC 2026) is a Hackathon arena oriented towards developing large-scale core AI applications (AI-native). The competition brings together young technology talents to solve real problems from the market, aiming to create a generation of spearhead AI Builders to serve the national digital economy.
Final Round Journey: Taking place continuously for 48 hours from July 17 to July 19 at FPT Building (Cau Giay, Hanoi).
Prize structure: Total prize value is up to 1.6 billion VND.
Global companion system:
Co-organizer: National Innovation Center (NIC), Meta Group, AI for Vietnam Foundation, FPT Corporation, Duy Tan University.
Diamond Sponsor: Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB).
Gold Sponsor: FPT AI Factory.
Silver Sponsor: SotaTek, AI Singapore.
Strategic Communications Partner: DINOSAUR.
Companion and Sponsor: Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee, National Institute of Digital Technology and Digital Transformation (NIDIT), Hanoi National University (VNU), VNU High-Tech and Innovation Park (VNU-TIP), Vietnam AI Stars, STEAM for Vietnam.
Update contest information at: www.vietnamaichallenge.com.