Developing infrastructure, ensuring national artificial intelligence sovereignty

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is soliciting public comments on the draft Law on Artificial Intelligence (AI), in which Chapter III focuses on one of the key contents: Developing infrastructure and ensuring national AI sovereignty. This is considered a strategic step to create a solid foundation for AI development with Vietnamese identity and autonomy, towards ensuring technological security, data safety and national digital sovereignty in the global AI era.

According to the draft, AI infrastructure is identified as an important part of the national digital infrastructure, which must be planned, invested in and developed in a strategic direction, simultaneously serving socio-economic development, national defense, security and enhancing national competitiveness. The development of this infrastructure is not only to meet the needs of computing, storing and training AI models, but also to master core technology, build a national data platform, reduce dependence on foreign technology and ensure Vietnam's technological sovereignty .

The draft Law clearly states that the State plays a leading role in creating and investing in core infrastructure components, while maximizing social resources through public-private partnership mechanisms, encouraging the private sector to participate in investing, building and operating data centers, computing platforms, and AI ecosystems.

Infrastructure development must ensure a balance between autonomy and integration, between open technology and commercial technology, between public interests and economic interests; while maintaining fairness, transparency, and inclusiveness in access to and exploitation of infrastructure, preventing monopoly and waste and promoting healthy competition.

At the same time, the draft emphasizes the requirement to ensure information security, safety and protection of important data, in which AI data must be stored and processed within Vietnam's territory, in compliance with the provisions of the Data Law, the Law on Personal Data Protection, the Law on Cyber ​​Security and international treaties to which Vietnam is a member.

AI infrastructure development must go hand in hand with sustainable development, prioritizing the use of clean energy, energy saving and environmental protection, while being in harmony with international standards, referencing advanced legal frameworks but still suitable for Vietnam's characteristics.

Establish a national database for AI, serving research, innovation and practical application.

Another notable content is the national AI infrastructure development policy to build a physical, data and core technology foundation, ensuring technological autonomy. The specific goal is to build and operate a national supercomputer, a GPU cloud system and a shared AI platform, with enough capacity to serve research, innovation, training and deployment of practical applications. Vietnam will also establish a national database for AI, acting as a shared data center serving the whole society, while promoting the development of specialized databases for AI in areas such as healthcare, education, energy, transportation, environment, agriculture , etc.

The draft encourages the use, development and contribution of open source code, open data, open models from businesses, organizations and communities to the national AI infrastructure. The State will have preferential mechanisms, including priority access to infrastructure, tax exemptions, financial support and recognition of community contributions, creating motivation for all social sectors to participate in building and developing the Vietnamese data and AI ecosystem.

Notably, the draft Law stipulates the mechanism for forming, managing, operating and exploiting national databases for AI in a transparent manner, clearly classifying three groups of data: Open data (public, free, unrestricted use); controlled open data (conditional access, compliance with regulations on confidentiality and reverse contribution obligations) and commercial data (provided on a contractual basis, with fees or other value exchange). All activities of storing, securing and exploiting AI data must comply with the principles of the Data Law, in which AI training data will be regulated by the Government with a specific management mechanism.

The inclusion of regulations on infrastructure development and ensuring AI sovereignty in the Law demonstrates Vietnam's long-term vision in the AI ​​era, which does not only stop at applying technology but also shapes the capacity to master, innovate and protect national digital sovereignty. AI infrastructure is considered the foundation for Vietnam to enter a new development stage where data becomes a strategic resource, technology is a tool to create power, and AI is the central driving force of the digital economy, digital society and digital nation to develop sustainably.

Center for Science and Technology Communication

Source: https://mst.gov.vn/phat-trien-ha-tang-bao-dam-chu-quyen-tri-tue-nhan-tao-quoc-gia-197251012231235002.htm