TUESDAY, March 19, 2024
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Thai chatbot developer predicts a new AI revolution

Thai chatbot developer predicts a new AI revolution

Artificial intelligence (AI) will bring big changes in technology, science economics and society, though access to it will be unequal, said the developer of Thailand’s first AI chatbot, Alisa Ai.

Jarunpat Boonyang, CEO of service provider Glory Forever, said AI now plays a very big role in global development.

“We believe the AI era will bring big changes to the world,” he said, adding that the changes will be faster than the Industrial Revolution, which kicked off in the 1700s.

However, Jarunpat expects this rapid change in technology to trigger inequality in access, especially among people who communicate in languages other than English.

“Hence, we have to accelerate the development of generative AI that supports the Thai language as soon as possible,” he said.

Thai chatbot

Alisa Ai was launched in March this year via the Line application.

The CEO said it took the development team some four months to get the chatbot ready for beta-testing.

“During that time, we were working day and night without a break,” he said. “We worked nights, sleeping only in the mornings, to get Alisa ready for the public as soon as possible.”

Though the Alisa avatar is dressed in Chinese attire, he said her name is very much Thai.

She refers to her users as “master” to be polite and respectful, as well as to help people feel more at ease, he said.

When asked to compare Alisa Ai to the world’s first AI chatbot “ChatGPT”, Jarunpat said each generative AI has its own features.

ChatGPT was developed by the US AI research laboratory OpenAI and released in November last year. Its name combines “Chat”, referring to its chatbot functionality, and “GPT” which stands for Pre-trained Transformer – a type of large language model. ChatGPT supports several languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Arabic and Chinese.

“However, we have developed Alisa to support Thai language users and made it available via Line, which is most Thais are familiar with,” he said.

Thai chatbot developer predicts a new AI revolution

Alisa Ai's functions

The Thai chatbot features the following functions:

  • Interacts with users’ messages, such as question and answer, idea requests, programme coding, and creating articles, advertisements, news, reports and video scripts
  • Generating pictures from messages in Thai and English
  • Providing up-to-date information that gets updated continuously
  • Advising users how to achieve their goals through the new feature “/Goal” (AutoGPT+OwnerMode)

"The ‘/Goal’ feature has never existed before and we believe it can support users a great deal,” he said, adding that this was now Alisa’s unique function.

He said the development team is also working on a new function called “Chatfile”, which allows users to upload files when communicating with Alisa.

For instance, users can have Alisa give them lessons by updating textbooks. They can also upload more than 100 pages of English-language text for discussion in Thai.

He added that more functions will be added to the chatbot in the future to support individuals and businesses.

“We will adhere to our principle by helping everybody to safely use modern technology as soon as possible,” he added.

Future of AI

The CEO expects artificial intelligence to grow by leaps and bounds once AI understands human language.

He pointed out that AI development can trigger a leap in technology and science, especially once quantum computing technology becomes fully functional.

“Testing new materials and drugs, which currently take a long time, will become much faster with the use of quantum computers and AI,” he said, adding that this technology may be less than a decade away.

Besides, he said, Thai developers have sufficient potential to develop new technology, including AI.

Find Alisa Ai on Line (@alisa) or on Facebook www.facebook.com/groups/456922968926955.

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