SCB DataX clinches Thailand Technology Excellence Awards 2024 for pioneering AI, data science solutions

Its Project AI-Insight has fostered a culture of innovation and learning amongst Thai citizens.

Data analysis service provider SCB DataX took home the Thailand Technology Excellence Award in the Big Data - Data Center category for successfully enhancing its competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science through its initiative “Project AI-Insight: Revolutionising AI Literacy and Innovation.”

The project aims to advance AI and machine learning (ML), achieve international recognition, and democratise AI knowledge through comprehensive educational resources. In the process, the provider integrates cutting-edge analytics and AI into key value chains to empower its subsidiaries in achieving growth, efficiency, and minimised risks.

These efforts would not have been possible without SCB DataX’s research team, who all undergo capability building. SCB DataX ensures that its talents are all empowered to drive AI knowledge, not just within the company but externally as well.

SCB DataX’s groundbreaking research has garnered international acclaim, with significant presentations at esteemed events such as the Data-centric Machine Learning Research (DMLR) Workshop, the International Workshop on Semantic Evaluation (SemEval-2024), and the Financial Technology and Natural Language Processing (FinNLP) event.

Data-centric Machine Learning Research (DMLR) Workshop

SCB DataX had published its innovative research on the Birbal model, leveraging Mistral-7B technology, in the DMLR Workshop. The DMLR Workshop was started by a team and included stalwarts like Andrew Ng. This year, it was part of one of the prestigious International Conference of Learning Representations (ICLR) Conference.

The work focusses on how the company improved the reasoning abilities of Mistral LLM. Enhanced with additional training on a single RTX 4090 for 16 hours, the Birbal model has achieved a remarkable 35% improvement over baseline performance. The Qwen-14B model has also been introduced during the workshop, with the capability of generating high-quality commands across diverse tasks.

SemEval-2024

While large language models (LLMs) have shown remarkable linguistic capabilities, their numerical reasoning in real-world contexts remains a challenge. The SemEval 2024 NumEval competition focusses on addressing this by introducing a numerical headline generation task.

SemEval is a series of international natural language processing (NLP) research workshops whose mission is to advance the current state of the art in semantic analysis. At SemEval-2024, SCB DataX's research titled “Team NP_PROBLEM at SemEval-2024 Task 7: Numerical Reasoning in Headline Generation with Preference Optimisation” has delved into system design and common error patterns, providing valuable insights into integrating numerical analysis into large language models (LLM) and highlighting the potential and challenges of creating informative headlines. The study has achieved an impressive numerical accuracy of over 73.49%.

FinNLP

The company’s participation in the FinNLP event has further demonstrated its expertise in the field, as its study “Adapting LLM to Multi-lingual ESG Impact and Length Prediction using In-context Learning (ICL) and Fine-Tuning with Rationale” has addressed the critical area of predicting the impact and timing of ESG events from news articles.

By leveraging LLMs, including GPT-4 with ICL and Mistral (7B) LLM, SCB DataX has achieved highly accurate predictions, underscoring its commitment to innovation in AI and ML technologies.

The work got SCB DataX to rank second in the French track of the International Conference on Computational Linguistics Conference. The conference, organised by FInNLP group, aims to predict the impacts of ESG on fintech companies from their annual reports and social media interactions. Using ESG Scoring as an internationally recognised, it is determined whether a company is impacting Environment, Social, and Governance.

Online course

Meanwhile, SCB DataX has launched a free online course titled “From NLP to LLM: Another New Buzzword in Biz” in an effort to enhance AI literacy amongst Thai citizens. The course is designed to improve understanding of NLPs, which employ computer algorithms to analyse and comprehend human language, evolving into sophisticated LLMs.

Participants in the course explore both fundamental and advanced concepts of NLP and LLM, delve into the evolution of AI technologies, gain insights into computer language comprehension, and examine real-world case studies.

Project AI-Insight has seen a profound impact on both SCB DataX and the broader industry, with the former cementing its position as a leader in AI research, enhancing its reputation, and attracting global attention. The educational initiatives under the project have also democratised AI knowledge, empowering individuals with the skills and understanding necessary to navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

According to SCB DataX, the project exemplifies its role as a pioneer in AI innovation and its dedication to fostering a culture of learning and excellence, “contributing to the development of a highly skilled workforce capable of driving future advancements in AI and ML.”

The Asian Technology Excellence Awards, now in its fourth year, celebrates top technological innovators and solutions that are redefining industries and leading the charge in digital transformation.

The Asian Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Asian Business Review. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2025 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding retail initiatives, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].