FPT partners with World’s largest deep learning Institute to foster AI

HANOI, Vietnam, June 12, 2020 - FPT, Vietnam’s largest IT service provider, has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Quebec-based research centre Mila in an attempt to enhance Artificial Intelligence (AI) expertise and capabilities.

Located in the heart of Quebec's Artificial Intelligence ecosystem, Mila is the world's largest academic lab specialised in deep learning with a community of 450 researchers dedicated to scientific excellence and innovation. FPT is the first company in Southeast Asia to enter the Mila partner network, joining industry giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, etc.

The three-year agreement, which was signed virtually, will see the two sides collaborate on a number of areas, including strengthening FPT’s AI expertise and capabilities, strategic consulting to help FPT develop its AI center in central Vietnam, training and exchange of AI talents, etc.

The partnership with Mila is expected to help FPT deliver many more real-world AI applications such as those in natural language processing, smart factory, healthcare, agriculture, and so on. It will also help realise FPT’s aspiration to build a world-class AI center and open up opportunities for the company to enhance AI capabilities and talents.

Mr. Stéphane Létourneau, Vice-President in charge of Partnerships and Corporate Affairs at Mila highly appreciated the fact that FPT was able to meet Mila’s stringent criteria such as AI proficiency and potential applications as well as the ability to contribute to Mila ecosystem. 

“Why is this relationship between Mila and FPT a value-added proposition for Mila? I can think of several reasons”, he said. “The first one is FPT’s focus on AI research. With a dedicated AI research group, FPT is poised to be a great partner for collaborative research projects. Number two is FPT’s focus on education. FPT University deeply cares about talents. Fostering talents, FPT and the Government desire to develop an AI center in Vietnam”.  

According to FPT Chairman Truong Gia Binh, the partnership is aligned with FPT’s strategic goal of becoming the world’s leading digital transformation services provider. “With Mila’s extensive experiences and our determination, we are positive that our AI solutions will be upgraded constantly to help businesses enhance operations, transform themselves, and leap forward in the new normal”, he said.

“This agreement also helps fulfill our aspiration for universal access to technologies, particularly AI core technologies. Not only tech enthusiasts in developed countries but also young, talented Vietnamese have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and research about AI”, Binh noted.

Mila’s Scientific Director Yoshua Bengio, who was awarded the prestigious A.M. Turing Award -- the “Nobel of Computing” in 2019, shared the same view. “We want AI to be used for improving the world. We’ve been working with students coming from developing countries to study at Mila, go back to their countries and bring back some of the knowledge that is developed here”, he said.

As the region’s leading ICT corporation, FPT has been active in research and development of core advanced technologies such as AI, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Robot Processing Automation (RPA). Particularly in AI, the company’s focus has been on Natural Language processing (NLP), User Behaviour Prediction, Computer Vision, and Pattern Recognition, etc. to help both the public and private sector accelerate digital transformation. FPT looks to become a global Top 50 IT and digital transformation services provider by 2030.