June 25th, 2025
Phnom Penh – In an age of rapid technological advancement, one Cambodian young man is taking bold steps to close the gap between artificial intelligence (AI) and the kingdom's rich culture.
Digital content creator Rath Chan Ponleu has emerged as the driving force behind the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Cambodian culture and education.
His videos, created by AI, reflect the passion of young creators to maintain Cambodian rich habits, traditions and language, while also exploring the possibilities of modern technology.
The young creator posts on the “Ty Ronex” Facebook page shares short clips of his content as well as tips and tricks for others to try.
In one of his fascinating AI-generated videos, the main character, Cambodian woman navigates the mystical house.
With the beauty and charm of traditional Cambodians, she confronts a series of strange events. The conversations she encounters with the man she meets in the house only add to the suspense as she tries to uncover the truth behind the mysterious nature of the house.
Rath Chan Ponleu (left), who posted on the “Ty Ronex” Facebook page, shares a short clip of his content along with tips and tricks for others to try. Photo: Supply/Phnom Penh Post
The central message of the video is set against the mystery background, but emphasizes the importance of Cambodian identity.
The purpose of the young creator is clear – to train AI to understand and express Cambodian culture, language and traditions.
Using AI technology, creators want to bring Cambodian heritage to global audiences, introducing the beauty of the Khmer language and the stories that have shaped Cambodia for centuries.
In his efforts to train AI systems to understand and promote the unique culture of the Kingdom, Poneu not only explores the future of AI, but also shapes how the next generation of Cambodians can engage in this transformative technology.
For Ponleu, the journey to AI began with a deep curiosity about how this powerful tool could be used to understand and maintain cultural identity.
“I want to know how good AI is and what it will look like in the future. The more data we train it, the more popular videos now feature Google's VEO 3 technology,” he explained.
Through his creative videos and educational content, Ponleu helps others understand how to use AI technology in practical and impactful ways.
Through techniques such as locking “seeds” to maintain consistency, Ponleu says that video content can be manipulated for more accurate depictions. Photo: Supply/Phnom Penh Post
According to Ponleu, the power of AI lies in the careful creation of prompts.
“AI needs to have a strong understanding of the structure of English sentences and the key elements of the subject, object and keyword prompts,” he said.
“The better you understand how to design a prompt, the more specialized the results. For example, using basic words makes the AI easier to output. However, if you carefully organize the prompt, such as including specific lighting details, the results are truly specialized,” he added.
One of the biggest challenges facing Ponleu is overcoming AI's difficulties in recognizing Cambodian culture and its distinct traits.
He noted that AI systems often confuse Cambodia's cultural elements with the cultural elements of neighboring countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.
“AI has struggled to distinguish Cambodian faces, clothing and traditions from other Southeast Asian countries,” he said. Posts.
His advice to fellow Cambodians is to include specific details in the AI prompt, such as references to Cambodian culture, clothing and ethnicity, to help the system improve awareness of its own Cambodian identity.
Poneu's insight into the cultural understanding of AI is particularly important when it comes to accurately representing Cambodia's ancient and modern heritage.
“When I asked the AI to generate a video of “ancient women in traditional clothing near Angkor Wat,” for example, the results were not what I wanted,” he said.
“AI often confused traditional Cambodian styles with neighbouring countries' styles.” However, by further adjustments, Ponleu was able to improve the results by adding details such as skin tones of the right era and specific clothing styles.
The challenge of ensuring AI recognizes facial features and profiles persists, but through techniques such as locking “seeds” to maintain consistency, he can manipulate the video content for more accurate depictions.
Ponleu is optimistic about the possibilities of AI that will revolutionize the way Cambodians create and consume content.
The versatility of AI can simplify many tasks, he explained.
“For example, employees who are afraid to be on camera can create videos by using AI to generate actions based on their facial features and body shape,” he said.
This technology can also save time and money by eliminating the need for travel and location photography.
However, Ponleu acknowledges that AI still has limited understanding of current events and locations.
“Instead of capturing the latest scenes, AI uses outdated images like old photos from Angkor Wat,” he said.
He believes that the full potential of AI will come true when companies work with the Cambodian government and local organizations to ensure that technology reflects real-time development and accurately captures Cambodian rich heritage.
