A discussion seeking ways to effectively use ChatGPT in state management and public services was held in HCM City on March 1. — VNS Photo Nguyễn Diệp

HCM CITY — The HMC City Department of Information and Communications is encouraging experts, researchers and scientists to research and apply artificial intelligence (AI)-based application ChatGPT in the state management system to better serve people and businesses.

The city’s Department of Science and Technology, Department of Information and Communications, Việt Nam National University-HCM City (VNU-HCM), and the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) of HCM City on Wednesday co-chaired a discussion themed ‘ChatGPT application in state management and public services: Challenges and opportunities’.

Speaking at the discussion, Lâm Đình Thắng, director of the Department of Information and Communications, said the department is ready to receive proposals, opinions from IT experts, scientists, businesses, and the public on the implementation of AI-based applications such as ChatGPT to improve work performance and reduce time for administrative procedures.

“Applying ChatGPT could help improve State management efficiency and the operational quality of all online public services,” he said.

Đinh Điền, director of the Computational Linguistics Centre at the HCM City University of Science under VNU-HCM, said there are many difficulties in information management when using ChatGPT.

“However, it is cost- and labor-efficient to exploit this tool to answer common questions provided that the human resources can master and control it,” he said.

According to the Department of Information and Communications, a recent survey conducted on 1,000 businesses showed that 48 percent of businesses have already used ChatGPT in their daily operation.

And half of them said the application is gradually replacing certain positions in their companies, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The municipal People’s Committee vice chairman Dương Anh Đức said the city pays much attention to applying advanced technologies in real life.

The certain strengths of ChatGPT cannot be denied, so the city needs to research more on the tool as well as other AI-based applications to better serve city dwellers and improve the work performance of state agencies, he said.

“We will lose a valuable chance for development if we are too slow to exploit cutting edge technologies, including AI-based products like ChatGPT,” he said.

Applying ChatGPT is considered one of the solutions to contribute to the implementation of the city’s project on the research, development, and application of AI by 2030.

Deputy director of the Department of Science and Technology Lê Thanh Minh said the department is going to provide financial aid in the form of scientific projects to state agencies and businesses that plan to develop such useful software.

Most attendees agreed that with reliable input data, ChatGPT is truly useful. The most prominent concern is how to better control these input sources to eliminate wrong information, data loss and cyber frauds while maintaining and protecting information privacy.

Võ Văn Khang, vice chairman of the Southern Information Security Association, presented a solution to get rid of information leaks.

He said that it is necessary to first screen the input to erase inaccurate information, mostly by assessing information sources. Then in the long term, an ecosystem for ChatGPT should be developed for it to truly become an aid to humans, who are the ones making the final decision.

The Department of Information and Communications proposed developing apps for online public services to answer questions about the progress of administrative procedures; for the Hotline 1022 to receive feedback, reports, and proposals from the public and enterprises; for municipal leaders to timely update their working schedules, to summarise essential materials; for schools to establish a so-called study assistant at all levels. — VNS