Lương Minh Thắng

Thang Minh Luong or Lương Minh Thắng (born February 7, 1987) is a computer scientist and mathematician known for his contributions to artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP). Luong has served as an area chair at conferences such as ACL and NeuRIPS. His academic work includes over 50 articles published in conferences and journals, with over 29,000 citations and 15 patents.
Currently, Luong is a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. His work in deep learning for machine translation includes the development of models such as QANet and ELECTRA for language processing, and UDA and NoisyStudent for vision-related domains.
Luong co-founded Project Meena, which developed a leading chatbot in 2020, later evolving into Google LaMDA in 2021. He has led the development of Bard Multimodality since 2022 and was the principal investigator of the AlphaGeometry project, which resulted in a publication in Nature in 2024.
He is also the co-founder of the New Turing Institute, formerly known as VietAI, a non-profit organization that has trained over 4,000 AI experts across various industries.
==Family==
Lương Minh Thắng was born in Biên Hòa, Hồ Chí Minh Metropolitan Area, to Lương Văn Bình and Trần Thị Thu Thủy, who manage a family business focused on real estate and construction [citation needed]. He is the elder sibling in his family [citation needed]. Thắng traces his lineage to the esteemed mathematician Lương Thế Vinh [citation needed]. Originally from Nam Dinh, his great-grandfather relocated the family to Nghe An [citation needed]. The family maintains a book documenting their family tree and has erected a temple to honor their ancestors [citation needed]. It was Thắng's great-grandfather's wish for him to attain a Ph.D. degree and continue the legacy of academic excellence.
In 2018, Lương Minh Thắng married Wendy Uyen Nguyen, a fellow Stanford alumna. They have two children.
==Education==
Lương Minh Thắng attended Phổ Thông Năng Khiếu (PTNK) in Ho Chi Minh City, known for its focus on gifted students in mathematics. Under the mentorship of Lê Bá Khánh Trình, a mathematician and Olympian mathematics gold medalist, he secured the 8th position nationally in the Math Olympiad. He then pursued a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS), completing his studies in 3.5 years. Thắng earned a full scholarship to Stanford University for his Ph.D. in Computer Science, studying under Chris Manning and meeting Quoc V. Le, who played a significant role in his career.
==Career and Research==
===Natural Language Processing===
Lương Minh Thắng has made notable contributions to the field of natural language processing (NLP), particularly through his work on Large Language Models (LLMs). His research has influenced the development of several significant models and applications in the field. Notable examples include the Meena chatbot, which was introduced as a conversational AI with advanced capabilities, ChatGPT, and Bard. Thắng's research has focused on enhancing the functionality and applications of LLMs, contributing to their integration into various domains.
===Meena Project===
In 2018, Lương Minh Thắng co-founded the Meena Project, which aimed to develop a conversational AI capable of engaging in human-like interactions. Released in January 2020, Meena utilized a large-scale transformer-based model to handle a wide array of conversational topics and contexts. Thắng's involvement was significant in refining the chatbot's architecture and training methods .
===Bard===
Building on the foundation established with Meena, Thắng and his team developed Bard through a focused development effort. Bard was designed to generate creative and contextually relevant text, such as prose and poetry. It was intended to offer advanced capabilities in natural language generation, positioning it as a competitive alternative to existing conversational AI platforms.
===Gemini===
Following the success of Bard, Thắng and his team initiated the Gemini project. Gemini represents a continuation of their work in conversational AI, incorporating advancements from previous models to create a versatile AI platform. Gemini aims to enhance human-machine interaction through improved understanding and generation of natural language.
===AlphaGeometry===
In 2021, Thắng collaborated with Trinh Trieu on the AlphaGeometry project, which focused on developing an AI system capable of solving complex geometry problems at an Olympiad level. The project's outcomes were published in Nature, highlighting the AI's ability to address challenging mathematical problems using synthetic data.
===New Turing Institute (formerly VietAI)===
In 2016, Lương Minh Thắng co-founded VietAI, a nonprofit organization focused on AI education. The organization later evolved into the New Turing Institute (NTI) in 2020. NTI aims to advance AI knowledge and training, and has been involved in various educational initiatives and conferences. The institute continues to play a role in shaping AI education and research.
Category:1987 births
Category:People from Bien Hoa
Category:Vietnamese people
Category:Computer scientists