October 7, 2024

GenAI in Travel - Real Use Cases!

On a recent stormy evening in Bangkok, I had the pleasure of (a) being surrounded by French people in the hospitality business and (b) listening to Damien Pfirsch share how Agoda has built a culture of innovation, from its birthplace here in Thailand. [Thanks to our hosts, La French Tech Bangkok].

La Frech Tech BKK

Being the "thème du jour", GenAI had to be addressed. Agoda prides itself on taking "petits pas" when it comes to new tech adoption and is using ChatGPT to answer customer enquiries, seeing a 70% reduction in servicing time!


It was more of a "saut de géant" when they used GenAI to create 250 promotional videos, featuring Bollywood star, Ayushmann Khurrana. AI was use to change the voice-over, applying lip-sync and adding contextual images of the different destinations. 

But...this wasn't enough. My tech lizard brain needed MORE! I fed my transcription of the interview, thanks to Otter.ai, into Google latest hit AI toy, Notebook LM

The outcome is fascinating - listen to two energetic American podcast hosts taking 9.23 minutes to summarise a 45 minute interview! 


There are a few misinterpretations, like replacing Thailand with China, but overall the output is a captivating and accurate account of the topics discussed. 

This is going to send shivers down podcasters' spines and turn many a dull presentation into something worth giving up your time for! I'm already using it to review pitch decks and 50-page market research papers.


July 24, 2024

Watch the Premiere of "The Rocket Lounge at Tokyo Spaceport" (Full GenAI Music Video)

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - WORLD PREMIERE


We have the honour of hosting the world premiere of "The Rocket Lounge at Tokyo Spaceport" by Memories of the Starman, created and produced with a range of GenAI tools by The Media Village

Below is just the teaser. Watch the full screening at our 143rd social mixer tonight (register here), doors open at 6:30pm on Weds 24th July, 2024 at The Aftermath Bar, Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong. 

 

July 11, 2024

Buy entrance tickets for Web Wednesday HK

Our next social mixer will be at The Aftermath Bar, LG/F Sunny Building, 57-59 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong. Doors open at 6pm with the interview starting at 7pm (ish). Locate on Google Maps. Help us at the door, pre-purchase your tickets below. We offer two ways to pre-purchase your entrance tickets: 

  1. Stripe: click the blue "Buy" button below to pay by credit card or Alipay. You can select more than one ticket from the secure payment page.
  2. PayMe: either scan the QR code below and enter the amount of "HKD100" per ticket or pay via this link.






July 9, 2024

The Media Village talks GenAI at Web Weds HK

Web Wednesday Hong Kong is back!



Join us on July 24th at 6:30pm for our 143rd social mixer at The Aftermath Bar, LG/F Sunny Building, 57-59 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong. (Find your way on Google Maps).

[If you're into live music, stand-up comedy, sign up for their newsletter updates at theaftermath-hk.club. Follow all their socials via LinkTree. If you're looking for an unusual venue in Central HK to book for a daytime getaway or corporate workshop, drop an email to Alicia Beale, Co-owner.

I thought that, given all the hullabaloo about GenAI ("generative artificial intelligence"), rather than get caught up in the all the social media froth, let's invite a respected video artist and musician to tell us what it can really do.  

Our guest speaker for this gathering is none other than Charles Edwards, Producer & Director at The Media Village, who has created amazing video and audio productions for the likes of Hong Kong Disneyland, Cathay Pacific, China Light & Power, AXA, Rosewood, Barclays Bank and China Telecom.

In his spare time, Charles is the lead singer for the rock band, The Hard Luck Kings, and decided to put his creative might to the test by using various GenAI tools to make their first music video, "The Sinner Man". Enjoy!

 
 
When we hit the stage, Charles and I will tackle what he learnt using the latest GenAI tools - he's tried them all - and where he sees this going for the creative industry. It's gonna be a fun night in a great venue! Don't miss out - buy your tickets here now.

Entrance Tickets for Web Wednesday HK

Our next social mixer willl be at The Aftermath Bar, LG/F Sunny Building, 57-59 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong. Doors open at 6pm with the interview starting at 7pm (ish). Locate on Google Maps.

If the page doesn't render, register via this link.

December 7, 2023

Bumper GenAI Talks at Web Wednesday HK

It's been a tumultuous year...full stop! 


You know the world has been turned upside down when board battles at OpenAI lead news headlines, ahead of the Gaza hostage release and Binance's US$4bn fine. 

Once again, I find myself out of breath trying to keep up with the latest developments in AI, looking at creative ways to apply GenAI and GPTs to my daily job. 

What better a way to learn than to invite an AI practitioner, a Korean mathematical scientist who went from quant trading for banks to replacing research teams with automated AI bots. Our guest speaker for the "AI round-up of 2023" is Stephen Joon Choi, Co-Founder, CTO and Responsible Officer at Asklora, "a deep-tech startup committed to automating the role of financial advisors and research analysts to put professional-level investing strategies and insights right in the hands of everyday investors". 

We won't just speak about his new business but also dig deeper into the current and future evolution of AI, unravelling many of the acronyms, including "GenAI, LLMs (open and closed), RAG, RLHF and tackling where it could all go! 

Given the topic of artificial intelligence, we've once again asked Otter.ai to capture the various speakers in the transcript below. You can also listen whilst you read. Apologies for the poor audio quality as it was recorded on my iPhone. Recorded at CLUB DAO in Sheung Wan on 6th December 2023. 

 
 

July 21, 2023

Listen to Adam Najberg talking the future of video games

I had the pleasure of interviewing / grilling Adam "Naj" Najberg, the Head of Comms and Content for Tencent Games Global, at an impromptu Web Wednesday in Bangkok on July 19th, 2023. 


If you missed it or want to review his revelations - some real gems! - then listen to the unedited audio recording below. The transcript is provided by the AI algorithms of Otter.ai. [Warning: like all AIs, it's not 100% correct and may occasionally hallucinate. But the repartee remained witty and human!]. 

 

Summary (With links to specific sections)

  • Introduction to Naj 0:00

  • Transition from journalist to PR exec. 1:17

    • Working for Chinese tech companies.

    • How an American journalist ended up working for Chinese tech companies.

  • What does he do in Tencent Games?

  • The rise and fall of mobile gaming.

  • The evolution of the mobile gaming community.

  • Looking at the market in Southeast Asia. 8:22

    • Thailand is a promising market.

    • Mobile games are diverse.

  • How many of you play games? 10:41

    • Interoperability is critical for the metaverse.

    • The demographics of gaming in China.

    • Why big gaming companies didn't see the metaverse coming.

    • The problem with fads.

    • The difference between chance and games of chance.

    • Tencent is experimenting with digital currency.

  • The concept of Games as a Service. 17:00

    • Tencent's investment in China.

    • Breaking down the walls between Microsoft and Sony.

    • Games as a Service, EA.

  • Getting caught up in the excitement. 22:54

    • Getting caught up in the excitement of esports.

    • Brands getting into esports.

    • Selling to Gen Z players and brands.

    • Authenticity and future proofing the business.

  • How to place ads in a game? 25:52

    • The catch 22 of big brands.

    • Partnerships and advertising.

    • Using game streamers to engage the community.

    • The gaming world getting carried away with AI.

  • AI for games is a thing. 31:11

    • AI for GTA 5.

  • Working for Chinese companies. 33:40

    • Working for Chinese companies and living in China.

    • Challenges of working with Chinese authorities.

    • Big data and privacy.

    • Same sex marriage in games.

    • How to deal with cultural norms.

  • Observations on how large movie studios are normalizing video games. 44:36

    • The gaming industry is a small world.

    • Building an ecosystem around the kernel of content.

    • The siloed industry of video games.

    • What makes Thailand interesting as a video gaming market? 51:39

      • Why hardware is a hard business.

      • The Next studio is always at the cutting edge.

      • Thailand is the 19th largest game market.

      • The money comes from sponsorships for big companies like Lenovo.

  •