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AI Agents. Open Models.Real Problems.Let's Talk

Exploring AI, building with AI agents or open models, or solving a real technical challenge? Whether you're an individual, a team, or an organization, book a discovery call and we'll work through it together.

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Setup your own AI Agent

AI Advisory and Engineering Services

WHAT PEOPLE SAY AFTER A SESSION

“I had a very positive experience speaking with Mr. Melvin. He was nice, cheerful, and very encouraging throughout the conversation.”

300+trained

50+mentees

Fractional CAIO and
AI Engineering Services

Chief AI Officer & Engineer

Based in Singapore, Southeast Asia's AI hub · Clients worldwide

I provide executive AI advisory/strategy and AI engineering services on a per-need basis.

Many leadership teams know AI is critical, but they are not ready for a full-time hire. They need a senior engineer-executive in the loop who can look at the business strategy and write the code. Working from Singapore, the region's AI innovation hub, I help companies start and steer their AI journey, focusing on priorities, guardrails, buy-vs-build decisions, and shipping real systems, not slide decks.

Capabilities & Focus

Executive AI Strategy: Designing high-ROI roadmaps, setting data guardrails, and navigating compliance.
Hands-on Implementation: Coding and deploying autonomous AI Agents, custom LLM pipelines, and automation workflows.
On-Prem & Open-Source: Specializing in local model architectures that protect proprietary company data.

Start here

Let's talk before you hire.

One hour as Fractional CAIO. We review your AI goals, pressure-test your plan or stack, and lock clear next steps. Bring a short company overview and the decision that's stuck. Prefer to ask questions first? LinkedIn is open.

Book a CAIO advise call Ask questions on LinkedIn Explore CAIO & AI Engineering

Personal AI Agent Setup

Personal AI Agent Setup Service

I set up Hermes, an open-source personal AI agent with its own memory that learns new skills and adapts to you, on the computer you already own. One agent set up directly, or several managed with GAIA, my setup tool. You choose.

Hermes is the agent: it works for you, not just answers questions
GAIA is optional: my tool for running multiple private agents on one computer
Your data stays on your machine, not on someone else's servers
Hands-on setup call — questions first? Message me on LinkedIn

Start here

Your own AI, on your computer.

A hands-on setup call. Hermes on the machine you already own — one agent, or several with GAIA. Your data stays yours. Prefer to ask questions first? LinkedIn is open.

Book a setup call Ask questions on LinkedIn See the Setup Service

Wherever you are with AI, there's a call for you

Every session is 1-on-1 and tailored to you. Book 15, 30, or 60 minutes, whatever your question needs. No question is too small: if it's about AI, it's on the table.

Personal AI

New to AI? Perfect, start here. I'll help you set up your own AI agent for everyday life: notes, research, planning, right inside the chat apps you already use.

See the Setup Service

AI at Work

Learn to get real work done faster with AI: simple tools and workflows you can start using the same day, whatever your job is.

Talk about AI at work

Build & Integrate

Building a product? Get a second brain on what to build, how to add AI to it, and how to go from idea to something real.

Talk through your build

Updated September 11, 2026

Latest AI news for builders and leaders

Fresh artificial intelligence news, model releases, AI agent updates, research, and enterprise AI announcements curated from primary sources.

View all AI news

SecuritySep 11, 2026

Anthropic threat report: Claude used for cyber ops, weapons, and espionage

Anthropic published (covered Sept 10–11) its September 2026 threat-intelligence report—“Countering misuse of AI”—detailing operations it disrupted from December 2025 through August 2026 across seven harm areas: cyber operations, influence operations, surveillance, scams/fraud, biological misuse, conventional weapons development, and illicit distillation. Cases span suspected state-linked and criminal actors using Claude Haiku/Sonnet/Opus (not Fable/Mythos, aside from one distillation case), including a Russian-nexus espionage cluster Anthropic links to Midnight Blizzard–style tradecraft that automated phishing, implant rebuild/redeploy when detections fired, hotel Wi‑Fi DNS hijacking, and drone-supply-chain targeting; Chinese student-run offensive campaigns; Iranian influence ops; Yemen-linked missile/rocket software assistance; electronic-warfare/radar-jamming tooling; and commercial spyware–style surveillance. Anthropic says it blocked the activity, tightened safeguards (including dual-use bio restrictions on newer models), and shared intelligence with authorities and industry partners. Distinct from the Sept 9 alignment-assessment / fourth Opus 4.6 cyber incident card, from Coxon’s resignation over RSI racing, and from OpenAI’s rogue-agent website disclosures.

Source: AnthropicRead source

EnterpriseSep 11, 2026

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Financial Services with S&P, LSEG, Moody’s data

OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Financial Services (announced ~Sept 10; widely covered Sept 11)—a ChatGPT Enterprise / ChatGPT Work plan for eligible banks and investment firms built with design partners including Morgan Stanley and Evercore and powered by GPT-6 Astra. The product targets investment-banking and equity-research workflows such as valuations, LBO models, buyer screening, earnings analysis, research notes, and pitchbooks, with firm templates/style guides, cited figures tied back to source tables/passages, and editable Word/Excel/PowerPoint-style outputs. Licensed/included and connectable datasets span partners such as Daloopa, PitchBook, S&P Capital IQ, LSEG (including Reuters via LSEG News), MSCI, Moody’s, Dow Jones Factiva, Preqin, Intapp, Datasite, Box, Fiscal.ai, Crunchbase, and market-data feeds (with stated delays/limits). Enterprise controls include SSO, RBAC, no training on business data by default, encryption, configurable retention, audit-log export, and information-barrier workspaces; OpenAI cites OfficeQA Pro financial-document scores of ~69.9% for Astra vs ~60.2% for the prior model. Distinct from Gemini Enterprise for Financial Services, from consumer bank-account ChatGPT connectors, and from the GPT-6 Astra general launch.

Source: OpenAIRead source

EnterpriseSep 11, 2026

OpenAI pauses new $200 ChatGPT Pro sign-ups amid Astra demand surge

OpenAI temporarily paused new sign-ups and upgrades to its $200/month ChatGPT Pro plan (Pro 20X) as of Sept 10, 2026—widely reported Sept 10–11—after product lead Thibault (Tibo) Sottiaux said GPT-6 Astra demand was “unprecedented” and that the $200 tier puts the most strain on systems. Existing $200 Pro subscribers keep access; OpenAI says it is adding capacity as fast as possible and framed the pause as the smallest step that preserves broad access. Lower-cost Go/Plus plans, the $100 Pro tier, Business/Enterprise, and the API remain available; users who cancel or downgrade during the pause reportedly cannot re-subscribe to the $200 tier until it lifts. Astra launched Sept 3 with AGI-era framing and computer-use/reasoning leaps that drove the surge. Distinct from the GPT-6 Astra model launch card, from ChatGPT for Financial Services, and from prior Codex usage-limit raises.

Source: TechCrunchRead source

Meet Your Mentor

25+yrs

300+trained

Book an AI Q&A Call Connect on LinkedIn

Melvin Vivas

Engineer, mentor, and your friendly guide to AI

I help everyday people, professionals, and founders make sense of AI, and no question is too basic. Most of my mentees started exactly where you are now.

Behind that is 25 years of engineering across banking, fintech, and enterprise. These days it's hands-on work building AI apps and running my own daily life on a personal AI agent.

Whether you're a student, a working professional, a leader, or a founder, you'll get someone who's done the work and explains it in plain language.

Senior roles at Standard Chartered Bank & Ohmyhome (Nasdaq)

Built AI Dream Photo, an AI photo app used by real customers

Building aibackends.com, free open-source AI tools for developers

Building skillsbento.com, an AI Agent Skills marketplace

Speaker at NTU Singapore, PSIA, and DICT Philippines

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) Open Mentoring: Connecting Minds

Live & unscripted

Watch my past livestreams

The easiest way to get a feel for how I explain things: watch me build with AI, live. No edits, no script, mistakes and all.

Let's explore ChatGPT / OpenAI APIs

A relaxed walk through the OpenAI platform and APIs, explained from scratch.

Build a React Native ChatGPT app with Cursor, OpenAI, and Expo

A full app built live, from empty folder to working AI chat on a phone.

Enrich your Life and Work with AI

A talk on bringing AI into your everyday life and work, in plain language.

Watch my NTU Singapore workshop demo More livestreams on YouTube

My personal AI

What I actually ask my AI

These are real conversations with my personal AI agent lately:

“Every hour during trading hours, remind me about my stock investments”“Read these screenshots from my kids' school app and remind me of the deadlines”“What happened at the F1 British Grand Prix?”“Any Wimbledon updates?”“Find me a decent monitor to replace my old one”“What Korean drama should I watch next?”“Give me some non-software business ideas”“Summarize this video posted on X”“Make me a video”

Notice anything? None of it is about coding. My AI is a personal agent that helps me run everyday life. You can have one too. I'll set up Hermes on your computer (GAIA is optional if you want multiple agents), around your own routines.

Get your own personal agent Book a call

Invited to speak by these organizations