Fresh AI news
ChatGPT and Codex will share one usage pool in DecemberOpenAI charges a 10% uplift on FedRAMP API endpointsSouth Korea: October chip exports rose 259% on AI demandApple Intelligence is coming to China, with Qwen inside SiriClaude Code adds shared budgets and retires Opus 4.8 fast modeGoogle DeepMind expands PlanAssist to 12 more English councilsDeepSeek publishes a proactive coding-agent research prototypeJudge denies xAI bid to dismiss the NAACP data-center air suitOpenAI seeks up to $20 billion, down from a $30 billion targetGoogle plans to honor a shared robots.txt AI training controlGoogle’s Project Suncatcher satellite returns its first AI responseOpenAI will honor a shared robots.txt signal for AI trainingGemini’s computer-use tool is generally available in the APIMicrosoft releases Mage-VL-Cowork, a 4B computer-use modelChatGPT and Codex will share one usage pool in DecemberOpenAI charges a 10% uplift on FedRAMP API endpointsSouth Korea: October chip exports rose 259% on AI demandApple Intelligence is coming to China, with Qwen inside SiriClaude Code adds shared budgets and retires Opus 4.8 fast modeGoogle DeepMind expands PlanAssist to 12 more English councilsDeepSeek publishes a proactive coding-agent research prototypeJudge denies xAI bid to dismiss the NAACP data-center air suitOpenAI seeks up to $20 billion, down from a $30 billion targetGoogle plans to honor a shared robots.txt AI training controlGoogle’s Project Suncatcher satellite returns its first AI responseOpenAI will honor a shared robots.txt signal for AI trainingGemini’s computer-use tool is generally available in the APIMicrosoft releases Mage-VL-Cowork, a 4B computer-use model
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Teaching & Building with AIAgents, Local Models, and Workflows

I build with AI coding agents and share what works on X and YouTube and give back through free AI resources and open-source projects.

I also partner with startups to promote their AI products.

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Melvin Vivas at his desk in front of an AI agent architecture diagram

Coding Agents I use

  • Grok Bot
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Grok Bots by Melvin

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Bots I built for my own work and published for anyone to use. Open one, add it to Grok, and make it yours.

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My X analytics · Last 4 weeks · Sep 14 – Oct 11, 2026

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Teaching live on YouTube & X

No slides, no hype. I teach by building live on YouTube and X: AI agents, local models, and AI workflows, mistakes included. Join live and ask questions in chat, catch the replays on YouTube, and follow on X for the latest AI updates.

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years shipping software, the context behind every video

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Invited to teach and speak by

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA)
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Philippines
Bureau of Fisheries, Department of Agriculture, Philippines

Watch, read, learn

Pick your format. Every one covers AI Agents, Local Models, and AI Workflows, for builders who ship and teams figuring out where AI fits.

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Singapore · SE Asia

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Today's AI news brief

All AI news

Hardware ·

South Korea: October chip exports rose 259% on AI demand

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said (Nov 1) that October exports rose 93.7% from a year earlier to $115.28 billion, imports rose 36.0% to $72.78 billion, and the trade surplus was $42.50 billion. The ministry says semiconductor exports were $56.44 billion, up 259.4%, the second straight month above $50 billion, as global tech companies kept investing in facilities for the AI industry and memory prices and volumes stayed high. It says computer exports were $5.85 billion, up 496.6%, on server infrastructure and server SSD demand tied to AI services. Daily average exports were $5.24 billion, up 76%. January–October exports totaled $930 billion. Trade Minister Kim Jung-kwan said that with October still above $110 billion, annual exports of $1 trillion are becoming certain within November. Those figures are the ministry’s. Distinct from earlier Samsung and SK Hynix earnings cards.

Source: South Korea Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Enterprise ·

ChatGPT and Codex will share one usage pool in December

OpenAI’s help center, updated November 1, says that starting in December the usage allowance on Plus, Pro, and Business plans will be shared across ChatGPT and Codex, as OpenAI brings the agentic capabilities of Work into the main ChatGPT experience. Usage is measured in tokens and depends on the model and the task. Instant chat will not draw from that allowance. OpenAI says it expects most people will not need to wait for a reset more often than they do now. Combined remaining usage and reset times will show in Settings, under Usage. Someone who hits the limit can wait for the reset, upgrade, or buy credits for eligible features. Distinct from the October 28 API credit grants for ChatGPT Pro and Business, and from the allowance Work and Codex already share.

Source: OpenAI Help Center

Enterprise ·

OpenAI charges a 10% uplift on FedRAMP API endpoints

OpenAI’s API pricing page says that starting November 1, 2026, FedRAMP endpoints are charged a 10% uplift. The same note says regional processing endpoints, used for data residency, are charged a 10% uplift for models released on or after March 5, 2026. The page also lists a legal model configuration, gpt-6-astra-law, at $10 per million input tokens, $50 per million output tokens, and $1 per million cached input tokens, and says that promotional pricing is available at least through December 31, 2026. Those three rates match the short-context prices listed for gpt-6-astra on the same page. The prices are OpenAI’s. Distinct from the September 17 Astra for Law launch, which said API access as gpt-6-astra-law would come later, and from the September 10 OneGov discount on government token usage.

Source: OpenAI

Updated November 1, 2026

What I teach: AI Agents, Local Models & AI Workflows

I also build and ship

All projects

The tools behind the tutorials: open source, desktop apps, and production AI with paying users. Most of them started as a livestream.

Open source · 1.6k+ stars

Codex Astra/Luna Orchestrator

Astra or Sol as the orchestrator, Luna for subagents, inside Codex.

Desktop app · v0.7.1

Coworker

Desktop AI coworkers with local or cloud models, skills, memory, and a scheduler.

Open source · TypeScript

Local Evals

Eval app that runs locally against local models or any OpenAI-compatible API.

Open source · TypeScript

Agent Monitor

Local dashboard for Codex, Claude Code, Pi, and Hermes: agent trees, traces, tokens, and cost.

Production SaaS

AI Dream Photo

GenAI photo generation and face cloning, used by paying customers.

AI engineering for businesses

AIBackends

My AI engineering brand: custom AI workflows, integrations, private AI, and production AI systems.

Installer · Docker

GAIA

Runs multiple private Hermes agents on one machine.

Plugin marketplace

Skillsbento

Agent skill plugins for Claude Code and Codex: analytics, research, launches, and shorts.

Open source · Go

Cursor Go SDK

Typed SDK for the Cursor Cloud Agents API with streaming and artifacts.

github.com/donvito
Melvin Vivas at his desk in front of an AI agent architecture diagram

Melvin Vivas

AI Educator, Creator & Builder · Singapore

I teach AI Agents, Local Models, and AI Workflows to people who want to use AI, not just read about it. Before the channel: senior engineering roles at Standard Chartered Bank and Ohmyhome (Nasdaq), then a run of AI products built and shipped end to end. That's why every video, talk, and post is grounded in what actually ships.

  • Livestreams AI builds on YouTube and X
  • Speaker at NTU Singapore, PSIA, and DICT Philippines
  • 300+ trained through workshops and mentoring
  • Open-source maintainer: Codex orchestrator, Local Evals, Agent Monitor
  • 25 years across banking, fintech, and enterprise
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