The official mouthpiece of the Vietnam Association for Information Processing (VAIP), a publication that not only disseminates IT knowledge but also reflects every aspect of Vietnam's social life influenced by and impacted by IT

Mr. Alexandre Zapolsky, President and Co-founder of Linagora, believes that the Vietnamese government should sponsor research, development, and support the scaling of software produced in Vietnam. In this regard, the 'Make in Vietnam' program would serve as a precursor to further develop technologies, especially open-source software created and manufactured in Vietnam.

How do you perceive the current utilization of Open Source technology in both Vietnam and France?

I see there's a difference in the level of acceptance of open-source software between the two countries In France, there's a stronger acceptance and utilization of open-source products, with many companies and even the government leveraging them extensively. French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly voiced his support for open-source at various technology events.

In Vietnam, I see a lower level of acceptance of open-source products, but there's a higher number of startups engaging in open-source approaches or developing open-source products. The younger generation in Vietnam is numerous, with many aspiring to become engineers; they aim to build their careers as developers or programmers. Nowadays, when you're a software developer, you should pay attention to open-source.

At the national level, I believe both France and Vietnam should develop an official strategy for open-source. I myself have been heavily involved in advocating for the French government to develop this strategy, and I think Vietnam should also have a strategic decision on open-source and digital sovereignty. We can also learn from each other to develop open-source and open technology.

You mentioned digital sovereignty. What is it, and why does open-source contribute to digital sovereignty?
Digital sovereignty can be understood as the ability to manage your digital dependencies, or your organization's dependencies, with software providers. If you rely on proprietary, non-open-source software or solutions from international providers, you may be at risk. A geopolitical change could leave you without access to your own IT systems. We cannot achieve digital sovereignty without mastering technology.

And with the design principles of open-source, you are not only more accessible but also completely independent, not dependent on any specific software provider, from any country. This is especially true for artificial intelligence as it stands today. The most important thing in large language models and AI is data. For proprietary language models, the datasets they use are not published. They train those datasets in their own way. In such cases, the users won't be able to
control the input and output data. This poses a significant risk as it could lead to dependence on the vision of an individual or company. The most evident risk is that AI could generate an answer that is not aligned with your control, with the politics, and culture of your country.

Furthermore, I believe that AI must respect diversity. In nature, we need biodiversity, and the digital world should be no different. We shouldn't have just one or a few AI models. We need a diverse array of AI models, and that's precisely what open-source LLM aims to offer to the world.

Despite such benefits, the most successful companies still tend to be closed-source. What challenges exist in adopting Open Source solutions?

I'd like to mention OpenAI. It's a shame that they're called 'Open AI' but their technology is closed-source. However, I don't think that the ultimate winner in the future will be OpenAI, but rather a company that uses open-source. A truly open-source AI company will be the leader in the market.

In the tech market in general, I believe that the dominance of the GAFAM tech giants (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) comes partly from their financial strength. They can create barriers in the tech market, making it more difficult for open-source to compete.

Open-source may be easily accessible to developers, but promoting and persuading users to adopt open-source solutions require significant budgets or resources. Currently, the market capitalization of GAFAM may exceed that of France's budget. However, despite such significant challenges, there is a growing recognition that open-source benefits the globe, individuals, and society as a whole.The popularity of open-source is increasing, especially among the younger generation, who are increasingly inclined to use and promote open-source solutions over proprietary ones. I believe we are still in the early stages of this journey, and the world will continue to move towards greater acceptance of open-source.

So, what have European countries done to protect digital sovereignty, and what advice do you have for Vietnam in this regard?
In Europe, 80% of the software market is provided by companies from the US. That's a huge figure, and it's about time we realized 'enough is enough,' we can't always be prey. From there, we've been more determined to protect our interests.

To achieve that, you need to develop your core digital infrastructure based on open-source platforms. The pillars of digital technology infrastructure, such as operating systems, management tools, data processing... need to be built on open-source. We've developed an initiative called the 'Digital Public Infrastructure,' and they're built on open standards with open-source software tools.

And I believe that every nation should have the ability to manage its own infrastructure, without relying on any other country. In Vietnam, I have seen some companies that are very successful in building digital sovereignty, such as VNPT and Viettel. They use open technologies with the assistance of international experts and organizations, and they are completely independent in their technology infrastructure.