AI supports, but does not replace human thinking, values, and responsibilities
Speaking at the Workshop “The Unlimited Power and Unforeseeable Challenges of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” on September 15, 2025, Minister of Science and Technology (MST) Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed: AI is a powerful tool, but humans are the ultimate decision-makers. Let AI support, but not replace human thinking, values, and responsibilities. AI serves as an assistant to free up human labor for creativity and higher-value tasks.
The Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology (VJST) respectfully presents the full text of the speech by Minister Nguyen Manh Hung at this event.
Vietnam issued the first AI Strategy in 2021. However, AI is a rapidly evolving field. This strategy needs to be updated. By the end of this year, we will have an updated AI Strategy and AI Law. This is not just a legal framework, but also a declaration of the national vision: AI must become the intellectual infrastructure of the country, serving the people, promoting sustainable development, and enhancing national competitiveness.
AI is an intellectual infrastructure. AI is not merely an applied technology; it is becoming a form of national infrastructure, similar to electricity, telecommunications, or the Internet. Whoever masters AI will have a superior advantage in production, business, healthcare, education, national governance, and even defense and security. Vietnam must have its own Vietnamese AI intellectual infrastructure. Vietnam will quickly build a national AI supercomputing center and share open AI data. We will implement AI-ization like electrification, but we will AI-ize faster, as quickly as possible. Popularize AI, like the literacy campaign for AI, similar to the English learning movement in the past. Every Vietnamese person will have a digital assistant; the population won't increase, but societal intelligence will at least double.
Regarding open AI technology. Vietnam is committed to developing and mastering digital technology, including AI, based on open standards and open source. This is not just a commitment but our strategy: Open to develop and master Vietnamese technology, to Make in Vietnam, and also to contribute to humanity. Open to utilize others' knowledge and to create a higher platform for others.
Regarding creating a domestic AI market for development. Without applications, there will be no market. Without a market, Vietnamese AI enterprises will remain small forever. Therefore, strongly promoting AI applications in enterprises, government agencies, and key sectors is the fastest way to develop AI and create Vietnamese AI enterprises. The government will spend more on AI; the National Technology Innovation Fund (NATIF) of the Ministry of Science and Technology will allocate at least 30-40% to support AI applications, providing vouchers for small and medium enterprises to use Vietnamese AI. The domestic market is the cradle for creating Vietnamese AI enterprises.
Regarding AI transformation. We don't say AI application, but AI transformation. AI transformation is a comprehensive restructuring process of organization, industry, and national operations based on AI, to create new capabilities in management, production, creativity, and sustainable development. Saying AI transformation affirms that this is a strategic process on a national scale, similar to "industrialization" or "digital transformation." Saying AI transformation means focusing on transformation as the core.
Regarding Vietnam's opportunities. With a young, dynamic population of 100 million that is tech-savvy, Vietnam has the conditions to be both a fast adopter and a creator of AI products for itself and the world. Vietnam is a developing country, and the Party and State have set very high goals, leading to many challenges and big problems, which are precisely opportunities for AI. The Prime Minister has issued the List of Strategic Technologies, in which AI is a key technology that we will prioritize resources to develop. We can move faster thanks to: National AI computing infrastructure, data ecosystem, Make in Vietnam digital technology enterprises, a research force, startups, and a young tech-loving community. AI startups will be an important driving force for Vietnam's AI development.
AI also poses challenges and responsibilities. AI opens up great opportunities but also raises many issues regarding ethics, employment, and social trust. Therefore, we must develop AI that is fast, safe, and humane. AI for humans, not replacing humans but serving them; AI is a human assistant. AI is a powerful tool, but humans are the decision-makers; let AI support, but not replace human thinking, values, and responsibilities.
Regarding policies and institutions. We will issue a National AI Ethics Code, harmonized with international standards but designed to fit Vietnam's realities, and build the AI Law and AI Strategy based on the following core viewpoints:
First, manage according to risk levels.
Second, ensure transparency and accountability.
Third, place humans at the center.
Fourth, encourage domestic AI development and AI self-reliance.
Fifth, use AI as a driver for fast and sustainable growth.
Sixth, protect digital sovereignty. In which, data, infrastructure, and AI technology are the three strategic pillars of digital sovereignty.
An important feature of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the balance between the power of big tech giants owning core technologies and the advantages of countries/enterprises that understand local contexts, languages, cultures, and own specialized data to create customized applications. In the digital transformation era, technology is global, but data is local. Important specialized applications must run on a Vietnamese AI infrastructure. There is global AI infrastructure, but also national AI infrastructure. There are global platforms, but also national platforms. There are global applications (like ChatGPT), but also countless national applications. The combination of global and national will help our world develop more sustainably. And this will be an opportunity for developing countries like Vietnam.
The advantages of Vietnamese enterprises are Vietnamese data, Vietnamese problems; their advantage is open-source AI, and their fundamental advantage is Vietnamese people, Vietnamese intelligence, and the flexibility and adaptability of Vietnamese culture. These are the most essential and critical attributes in an era where technology is creating rapid and disruptive changes.
We are also officially defining the path for Vietnam's AI development. If we had to sum it up in one word, it could be "and." Global and local. Cooperation and self-reliance. Big Tech and Startups. Technology and applications. Elite and mass. Use and mastery. Creativity and control. Global and national infrastructure. Open data and protected data. Foundational, multi-purpose AI and customized AI for each field. Large AI and small specialized AI for each task, each organization. Generative AI and analytical AI. Open technology and closed technology, both integrating to learn and contribute, and self-reliant to master and protect national interests.
The fast and sustainable development of AI must rely on the word "and." Human history has mainly used "or," but now, it's time for "and" to become the focus. The level of human civilization corresponds to the degree to which we know to place "and" instead of "or." AI development will rely on four pillars, which are also very important "ands": AI institutions, AI infrastructure (computing, data, algorithms, models), AI human resources, and AI culture. Transparent AI institutions, modern AI infrastructure, high-quality AI human resources, and humane AI culture.
There is another "and," which is AI and the problems of AI. The power of AI may be even greater than nuclear energy, and thus, its problems may be greater than the atomic bomb. But AI and its problems are twins, like yin and yang, like two sides of a coin, relying on each other to coexist and develop, and they transform each other. AI's problems can be solved by AI itself, for example, training AI human resources with AI technology, detecting AI ethics violations with AI. AI grows alongside the very problems it creates. Without AI's problems, there would be no maturity of AI. AI and the problems of AI are a great "and." AI and its problems will always exist; we cannot eliminate them, but must coexist and manage them wisely.
AI is a great opportunity for Vietnam to rise and become a high-income developed country, standing shoulder to shoulder with the world's powers. All countries that have "dragonized" or "tigerized" are those that seized the opportunities of new industrial revolutions. In the past, due to wars, we missed those opportunities, but now, the country is at peace, Vietnam has escaped poverty to become an upper-middle-income country, and the 32nd largest economy in the world; we have the conditions to seize this opportunity, focusing all resources to AI-ize Vietnam, to double Vietnamese intelligence, increase labor productivity, achieve double-digit economic growth, enhance national competitiveness, improve national governance capacity, and better protect Vietnam, making Vietnam stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's powers.
The Declaration on Vietnam's AI is: Transformation - Humanity - Safe - Self-reliant - Cooperative - Inclusive - and Sustainable.
And finally, AI is a powerful tool, but humans are the ultimate decision-makers; let AI support, but not replace human thinking, values, and responsibilities. AI is an assistant to free up human labor for creativity, for higher-value tasks, and that is where humans surpass AI./.