The SCBX Group, led by SCBX and SCB 10X, continues to advance the AI ecosystem and community in Thailand by unlocking the potential of large Thai language models. Together, they are organizing the “Typhoon Hackathon 2024” event under the theme “Empowering Thai Language AI for Inclusivity.” This event aims to identify the best team to develop applications and AI solutions tailored to the Thai social and cultural context, utilizing the “Typhoon” models—a large language model series specifically developed for the Thai language. Finalist teams will have the opportunity to present their ideas, and collaborate with world-leading AI partners and investors, including Microsoft, AI Singapore, SCBX, SCB 10X, DataX, VISTEC, VISAI, and Gowajee. The total prize pool exceeds 180,000 baht. Interested participants can apply at https://forms.gle/ZRtqoRitc97Ddcdh9 from today until June 9, 2024. The event will be held from June 28-30, 2024, at DISTRICTX, FYI Center building.
Mr. Kaweewut Temphuwapat, Head of R&D and Innovation Lab, SCB X Public Co., Ltd. (SCBX) noted, “In the modern AI landscape, large language models (LLMs) have emerged as powerful tools with the potential to transform many fields. However, most LLMs today are primarily trained in English, creating a language gap for Thai and other Southeast Asian languages, which have low resources for model development. This disparity results in reduced efficiency and slower development for models in these languages compared to English. To address this, the SCBX Group, led by SCBX and SCB 10X, along with world-class partners, have come together to promote and drive the development of sustainable AI innovations in Thailand. We are organizing the “Typhoon Hackathon 2024” to advance AI technology and develop large-scale language models tailored to the Thai language and its unique social and cultural context. This initiative underscores the SCBX Group’s commitment to understanding and meeting the needs of Thai people and reinforces their determination to become an AI-First Organization.”
Mr. Kasima Tharnpipitchai, Head of AI Strategy at SCB 10X Co., Ltd. (SCB 10X), stated, “SCB 10X has initiated the development of ‘Typhoon,’ Thai Large Language Model series that understands the Thai context. It outperforms all publicly available Thai large language models in the market and has a performance score equivalent to GPT-3.5, based on high school exams and investment information from Thai experts. The SCBX Group recognizes the potential of the ‘Typhoon’ models for fostering innovations and solutions in Generative AI. To capitalize on this, we are organizing Typhoon Hackathon 2024, providing opportunities for developers, creators, and entrepreneurs to develop applications in Generative AI using the Typhoon API. The theme of the hackathon is “Empowering Thai Language AI for Inclusivity.” Examples of application scopes include 1. Thai Culture-Specific Applications: Apps designed to suit Thai culture, such as street food restaurant recommendation apps; 2. Productivity Tools: Tools to enhance productivity in the Thai language, such as paraphrasing and summarizing tools; 3. Content Generation: AI platforms for creating marketing content in Thai, from slogans to social media posts; 4. Creative Writing Assistance: Writing assistants that cater to the specific language needs of Thai writers; and 5. Thai Education: AI solutions to enhance Thai education, making learning accessible to all genders and ages, and promoting continuous learning. We sincerely hope this competition will leverage the ‘Typhoon’ model to create application-level solutions that will boost the competitiveness of the Thai AI industry in the future.”
Those interested can register to participate in the competition at https://forms.gle/ZRtqoRitc97Ddcdh9 from today until June 9, 2024. For more information, please contact the Typhoon Hackathon on Discord at https://discord.com/channels/1200273121614241863/1240623610842845216
About SCBX Public Co., Ltd.
SCBX is the mothership of the SCBX financial technology business group comprising 12 companies across three key sectors: Banking, Consumer and Digital Finance, and Platform and Technology, including Climate Technology. SCBX aims to become the most admired financial technology group in the region by driving strategic initiatives. The company operates with flexibility, exercises careful risk management, and possesses the capability and potential to compete equally with global competitors.
About SCB 10X Co., Ltd.
SCB 10X Co., Ltd., a member of the SCBX group, was founded in January 2020 as a “Moonshot Mission.” With a primary emphasis on technology, innovation, and investment, SCB 10X aims to foster sustainable exponential growth. The company specifically focuses on investing in disruptive technologies such as blockchain, digital assets, web 3.0, and deep tech businesses.
For further information, please visit: https://scb10x.com/.
About Typhoon Thai LLM
“Typhoon” stands as a premier Large Language Model specifically tailored to the Thai language. It is currently the best Thai Large Language Model publicly available in the market, performing on par with the capabilities of the GPT-3.5 model in Thai. This evaluation is based benchmarks compiled from Thai language exams, equivalent to high school standards and other standardized tests in Thailand. “Typhoon” is designed to address the language gap prevalent in models predominantly trained in English, rectifying the scarcity of training data for the Thai language.
There are currently two versions of “Typhoon” – 1. Typhoon-1: Developed upon the open-source model Mistral-7B 2. Typhoon-1.5: Developed upon the open-source models Llama-8B and Qwen-72B. Each version includes two types of models: 1. Pretrained Models, which involve teaching the model the Thai language, including vocabulary, context, Thai culture, alongside general world knowledge. 2. Instruction-tuned Models, which further train the model to communicate the knowledge it has learned to response to specific instructions, such as translation, summarization, and question answering, among others.
Interested developers can download the Typhoon Pretrained Models under the Apache 2.0 license free of charge at https://huggingface.co/scb10x/. Typhoon API, with the latest instruction-tuned model version, is also available via https://opentyphoon.ai/.
