Back a year or two, many people would not have expected that generative AI would become something that everyone can use in their work and in real life.
But if you go back almost 10 years before that, there are only a handful of people who believe that AI will definitely help improve people's lives. One of them is Mr. K. - Matichon. Manikat, who is currently the Head of the Research Center and the founder of the Vulture Prime Co., Ltd. and the creator of Float16.cloud AI infrastructure system that allows generative AI of both Thai and foreign organizations to be used practically without any problems.
But before seeing the day of the global AI hype like this, Mr. K encountered a story that was both memorable and impressive, as well as many problems and obstacles to overcome. Insiderly.ai So let's take the opportunity to talk to him about how the lessons of his past adventures have shaped him to this day and what the AI industry will look like in the future.
Chapter 1: The Path to Choose Between AI and BTC
Mr. K said that he has been interested in technology for a long time because he grew up as a nerd who learned to program computers since he was in junior high school and still likes math, English, and science, especially physics.
When I entered university, it was also the time when AI technology was being talked about, from the AlphaGo program or an artificial intelligence program that can compete against professional players. This made him wonder how this innovation works, and as he studied more, he had the opportunity to participate in labs with his master's and doctoral seniors.
But the founder of Vulture Prime also said that at that time, the trend of Bitcoin, a digital currency, was also being talked about, which was also very interesting. It made him think hard about which field he should study the most...
And finally, he decided to focus on AI, focused on learning and experimenting until he was persuaded to work for a startup company. Easy Rice developed AI specifically for agriculture
"But looking back, if I had chosen to focus on Bitcoin at that time, I might have been rich now (laughs)," Mr. K joked.
Chapter 2: Don't Just Go Local, You Have to Go Global
Although working at Easy Rice has been quite open to working in AI, it has taught him many valuable lessons. But after working here for a while, Mr. K decided to leave the company, and he disappeared for 2 years before returning to the industry with the founding of Vulture Prime.
But Mr. K confirmed that the moment was lost. He didn't leave the AI industry anywhere, but he just went looking for new challenges to fuel himself.
"I'm not 100% out of the industry, I'm still interested in AI, but after two years of loss, I came across a new question: if we want to be a global citizen, if we want to do something and connect with the whole world, what can we do?"
The reason for this doubt is that he feels saturated with working with Thai people, including doing business only in Thailand. He took this opportunity to explore what the AI industry in the countryside is doing, and found many interesting things. Which changed his mindset in a different way.
"I found it easier to work in the global market than in the local market, I met an LLM team in Singapore, I talked to him very easily, just talk on Twitter, meet and work together, but in Thailand we can't do this, there will be another orderly and structured process."
"Collaboration and partnership are also different, doing business in Thailand, we have to ask this person to help, we think we are partners, but in the end, he steals the idea and does it himself. This is not to say that we can't find it overseas, but at least we can definitely identify who are the people who will be our dream partners who we are happy to work with. But in Thailand, most of the time it doesn't work, which is very difficult."
Chapter 3: If you want to learn from your competitors, you need to know how to copy
Another thing that Mr. K learned from abroad, which is a very unusual mindset, is that when he thinks of doing business to compete with competitors, he will be able to do it. We must know how to copy others to be.
"When we come up with new innovations in Thailand, people like to ask us how our work is different from this person. If he has already done this, why would we do it again? In the outer city. If someone does something that no one has done before, it's a good thing. We just need to find the difference in that area, for example, our products are the same, but we have better service, etc. Having competitors is good because it means that the market is big enough for people to compete..."
"And in terms of marketing. If we see that a competitor is using this keyword, then we use this term as well. We will not waste any time researching. Having competitors makes you know which words people are already searching for. What is the current market size? We don't have to start doing everything ourselves."
Although peeling is recommended, Mr. K insists that it is not easy, and there is an iron rule.
"We have to copy what the public sees, but what is problematic is stealing, such as stealing confidential information, taking files in the back of his house, stealing work plans, stealing future strategies that have not been disclosed yet. The processes along the way are important and something that we have to think about ourselves."
Chapter 4: Float16.cloud Turning research on the shelf into practical
For the current projects The task that he is most proud of is the creation of a system called Float16.cloud It is a Generative AI service platform in Thai that has the same performance as ChatGPT.
Mr. K briefly explained: Float16.cloud The first layer of AI infrastructure, which has the advantage of helping those who invent or invent GenAI that may only look good on the page to be able to use it and create an ecosystem that can really happen. Q&A in Thai effectively
"When OpenThaiGPT finished training the model and prepared to release the model to people 2 months ago, it turned out that when the time came, there were not enough resources for hosting, so we were contacted to help fix it...
“ Float16.cloud It helps to complement the ecosystem. Previously, OpenThaiGPT was considered a research work on the shelf but could not be used in practice, so we have taken it on the shelf for practical business use. If it is simply likened, they have made a blueprint, and we are a factory that has the resources to produce it and produce it in a tangible way. That's about it."
Mr. K said that Alibaba is another partner who invites Float16.cloud to help host the SeaLLM-7b-v2 model developed by Alibaba for production. It shows that global companies still believe in their services. Float16.cloud It means how valuable what he and all the team have done together.
บทที่ 5: AI Hype is Real!
Each year, there are always buzzwords related to technology that people talk about, such as Blockchain, Metaverse, Cryptocurrency, NFT, and AI today. Nowadays, almost no one is interested in the Metaverse or NFTs.
But will AI end up in the same way as other words? There must always be an uptrend and a downtrend. The AI trend is now at its peak.
And like this. Is it close to a downtrend?
"This AI hype is quite long, many years ago there was a heavy hype, and the emotions and feelings at that time were similar to now, but the difference is that we don't question many AI issues anymore, such as doing Image Detection, which we take for granted.
"I don't know where it will go, there may be times when people don't pay much attention to it, which I believe will probably be around next year, the trend should start to fall, but in the long term, AI will definitely be an important part of our daily lives."
Epilogue: Live with Failure and Move Forward
In a few years, Mr. K has become one of the leaders in the AI field in Thailand and is building on his global success. Although he may not be very old now.
however He confirmed that he was not a person who had achieved so much, Mr. K looked back at his life and found that it was never easy to get to this point, because opportunities often come when you are not ready. Therefore, you must always prepare yourself.
"There are many people who think that I am talented, have fire, and succeed from a young age, but I don't want my story to be a fairy tale that requires the protagonist to be a hero. I want my life story to be more like a diary, a travel record, because I am just an ordinary person like everyone who fails, but I can get up and keep going."
"There are a lot of projects that I have done, and there are a lot of losses, there are many projects that have failed, but everything I do is for the growth of the community, if we do something useful to help everyone benefit, it is always better, and I believe that being in the field of AI gives me the opportunity to create benefits for many people."
"But I also want to leave it to you that I want everyone to learn to live with failure, don't be afraid of failure, don't forget that no one succeeds on the first day, it may be torturous, but at some point we will get used to it and it will make us grow," Mr. K concluded.
