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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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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 18, 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

AgentsSep 18, 2026

Meta Muse arrives on Mac with native app actions across files and mail

Meta launched (Sept 17–18) Muse for Mac—its consumer personal AI agent now runs as a native desktop app that can act on files, messages, calendar, notes, and mail inside their native applications. Access is opt-in; Muse always asks before sensitive actions. The Mac ship follows the Sept 8 mobile/web Muse launch that quickly topped U.S. App Store charts; Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang and Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the release on X as Muse and rivals race on consumer agent features (including voice calling). Distinct from the Meta AI Mac dictation companion, from Muse Code / Muse Spark, and from the Sept 8 Muse personal-agent launch card.

Source: TechCrunchRead source

ModelsSep 18, 2026

Alibaba Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash ships 1M-token audio-video agent model

Alibaba’s Qwen team released (Sept 17–18) Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash—its first omni-modal model built around agentic delivery—accepting text, images, audio, and video with a 1-million-token context window on Qianwen / Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (hosted; no open weights announced). Qwen reports >25% average gains vs Qwen3.5-Omni-Plus across ~29 benchmarks, audio input costs down >98% and combined audio-visual >93%, with WildClawBench-MM at 71.0 (+36.5 pts) and scores it says approach or beat Gemini 3.8 Flash on several audio/video evals; it also expanded open-source Qwen-MM-Plugins and Qwen-Live Harness for long A/V agent workflows. Distinct from Qwen3.8-Flash text/vision and from Gemini 3.8 Live / Live Extended Thinking.

Source: QwenRead source

ResearchSep 18, 2026

Anthropic confirms Bay Area wet lab as it expands AI biology work

Reuters reported (Sept 18) that Anthropic has built a wet lab in the San Francisco Bay Area for physical biology experiments beyond in-silico evaluations; life-sciences head Eric Kauderer-Abrams confirmed the company does typical biotech-style lab work in-house and with partners, while a spokesperson clarified the lab is not specifically for drug discovery. Anthropic wants Claude to help direct robotic experiment execution with human oversight, after launching Claude Science, acquiring Coefficient Bio, adding Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board, and opening the Life Sciences Verification Program—while saying it is not running clinical trials or competing with pharma on bringing drugs to market. Distinct from LSVP, from the biomolecular modeling uplift / Adaptyv contest, and from Isomorphic Labs clinical timelines.

Source: ReutersRead 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