08 May 2026

🚀 Webinar: Behind SEA-LION—Pushing the Boundaries of Southeast Asian LLM Capabilities

How do we build Large Language Models (LLMs) that truly understand the linguistic and cultural complexities of a region?

How do we build Large Language Models (LLMs) that truly understand the linguistic and cultural complexities of a region?

The Data Science for Social Impact (DSFSI) research group, the AI4D African Languages Lab, and the African Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI) at the University of Pretoria are proud to host a special DS4Society webinar featuring Jian Gang Ngui from AI Singapore.

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The Session: Multilingual & Multicultural AI

The AI Singapore team has been at the forefront of regional AI development, specifically through the SEA-LION (Southeast Asian Languages in One Network) initiative. This project isn’t just about translation; it’s about building foundational models, safety frameworks, and embedding suites designed for the diverse data landscape of Southeast Asia.

In this talk, Jian Gang will share deep-dive insights into:

  • Pre-training and Post-training: Lessons learned from building the SEA-LION family.
  • Evaluation: Using the SEA-HELM suite to holistically benchmark regional language performance.
  • Safety & Cultural Grounding: Implementing SEA-Guard to ensure AI remains culturally appropriate and safe.

Event Details

  • đź“… Date: Monday, 25 May 2026
  • ⏰ Time: 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM SAST
  • đź“Ť Venue: Online (Link provided upon registration)
  • đź”— RSVP: Register here by Friday, 22 May

Meet the Speaker

Jian Gang Ngui is the Head of Model Development at AI Singapore. He leads the technical teams responsible for the SEA-LION ecosystem, including the development of safety models, embedding models, and the SEA-HELM evaluation suite. His work has been widely published, contributing foundational research to the global AI community’s understanding of regional LLMs.

Who should attend? This session is highly recommended for postgraduate students, supervisors, established scientists, and researchers interested in NLP, data sovereignty, and multicultural AI development.

For any enquiries, please contact the team at dsfsi.info@up.ac.za.

See you there!

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Stay connected with our work:

  • DSFSI: https://linktr.ee/dsfsi
  • AfriDSAI: https://linktr.ee/afridsai