Latest news with #EricChen
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI Star Mila Headlines Golden Melody Festival's Virtual Idols Discussion
Taipei's Golden Melody Festival conference lineup drew music professionals from across Asia and beyond, offering matchmaking sessions, showcases, and forums to promote the Mandarin-language music scene. At the opening pitching session of the event, industry leaders gathered to explore a frontier that's quickly becoming less science fiction and more pop reality: AI-generated virtual artists. More from Variety Blackpink Firm YG Entertainment's Mojo Kim Talks K-Pop's Global Strategy at Golden Melody Festival: 'It's About Emotional Language' Recording Academy President Panos A. Panay Talks Cross-Cultural Creativity at Taipei's Golden Melody Festival: 'Your Truth Is Your Superpower' CJ ENM Unveils Artificial Intelligence Strategy With Debut of 100% AI-Generated Animation 'Cat Biggie' Titled 'Creating the Artist of the Future: An AI × Metaverse Innovation Lab,' the talk introduced Mila, a virtual singer powered by AI and designed to exist seamlessly within the metaverse. On stage, Enjoy Record Co.'s CEO Eric Chen and Inventec Corporation's senior VP Chaucer Chiu discussed the opportunities and philosophies behind this synthetic starlet. Mila isn't just a 3D avatar with a synthesized voice. She's the result of a complex ecosystem that includes AI-driven personality development, real-time interaction in the metaverse, and cultural hybridization in her visual and vocal identity. Her creation involved everything from sound engineering and text-to-speech software to AI computing servers. She represents 'an extension of human emotion' and a new blueprint for fan-artist relationships. 'The emotional connection between virtual idols and fans is, in fact, no weaker than with real artists,' Chen told Variety. 'On the contrary, it can more easily overcome limitations of language, geography, and time.' When developing the virtual singer, the team discovered that AI-powered personality design, interactive voice functions, and tailored social media content enabled fans to engage with her around the clock, which can lead to emotional bonds. 'This 'co-creative companionship' allows for a scalable connection that is difficult for traditional artists to achieve,' said Chen. Still, the path to virtual stardom is fraught with creative and ethical questions. From a technical standpoint, the goal is to make virtual artists feel both natural and distinct, but the real creative challenge lies in giving them a sense of 'soul,' in making audiences believe there's more behind the avatar than just code and synthesis. Just as crucial is ensuring that an AI artist's personality doesn't cross cultural or ethical boundaries. 'Everything from her behavior and language to visual identity must go through a responsible design and review process,' said Chen. 'As music producers, we also pay close attention to attribution, originality, and emotional authenticity in creative works. These are the ethical issues we need to scrutinize most in virtual music creation.' Looking ahead, Chen said that AI music will become more widespread, but its chart-topping potential still depends on something algorithms can't manufacture: human touch and emotional resonance. 'We don't see AI as a replacement, but as a collaborator,' Chen explained. 'The future of the mainstream market might involve 'AI-assisted creation,' 'AI-optimized production processes,' and even 'AI personality artists charting,' but the core will remain the resonance of content and value. Without that resonance, even the most powerful algorithms will just be background music.' Best of Variety Oscars 2026: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Wagner Moura and More Among Early Contenders to Watch New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI PCs Will Dominate By 2027, Says Asus Executive
So-called AI PCs will account for more than half of PC shipments by 2027, according to a senior Asus executive. Demand for AI PCs – which ship with a neural processing unit (NPU) to assist with AI tasks – has been relatively modest so far. The market share of AI PCs is 'still single digit', Eric Chen, Asus's senior corporate vice president told me in a briefing to coincide with last week's Computex trade show. 'It's not that big,' he admitted. However, he said that growth over the next couple of years will mean that by 2027 'over 50%' of total PC shipments will be AI PCs. Asus's predictions are roughly in line with that of major analysts such as Gartner, IDC and Canalys, all of which have predicted steep growth in AI-capable PCs over the next few years. The big challenge for PC makers is giving businesses and consumers a solid reason to pay a premium for an AI PC. Popular AI services such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Anthropic's Claude are cloud based and don't directly benefit from the presence of an NPU. Meanwhile, Microsoft has struggled to deliver compelling AI features in Windows, with the highly controversial and much delayed Recall feature only arriving on Copilot+ machines at the end of last month. Microsoft was forced to pull an early test version of the all-seeing Recall after serious security flaws were discovered by testers, which have now been fixed. Chen said 'the big bottleneck" right now is that users don't fully understand how AI can help them. He gave an example of how Asus is deploying AI within its own business to check the paperwork that comes with business transactions. Previously that task was done by hand, but now the company is using AI to process the paperwork. 'They used to spend 200 hours to do the checks,' said Chen. 'Now, three hours. That's a big, big difference.' It's those kinds of tasks involving sensitive customer data that companies might not want uploaded to cloud services that will really take advantage of the local processing power offered by AI PCs, Chen claimed. 'A lot of companies and people, they don't want their data to upload to the cloud,' he said. Although Asus has been developing a suite of its own applications, such as Muse Tree, which offers AI image generation without relying on expensive, resource-hungry cloud services, Chen concedes that professionals will still turn to the cloud when they need the optimal quality. He said that 'local is already good enough" for many lightweight tasks, however, and that cloud AI services will eventually start tapping the power available to AI PCs. 'The cloud and the local, they will work together. That is one of the trends that will happen,' Chen added. AI PCs may well hold more appeal to businesses than consumers right now, and that's perhaps one of the reasons that Asus has decided to ramp up its commercial offering, pitting the company into even stronger competition with rivals such as Dell and Lenovo. 'In the past 35 years, we are more focused on the consumer PC business,' said Chen. 'In the coming years, Asus will develop our commercial business as well.' IDC's figures for 2024 worldwide PC shipments put Asus in fifth position, with a market share of around 7%. But Chen said the company had 'very aggressive' plans to attack the commercial market in a bid to close the gap to market leader Lenovo, which shipped more than three times as many PCs as Asus did in 2024, according to IDC's figures.
Business Mayor
24-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Injective leads AI token surge with 12% rise – Is $17 possible for INJ?
INJ, on the daily time frame, completed a clean inverse heads and shoulders pattern. Injective's $2B annualized trading volume for iAssets could accelerate the onboarding of tokenized stocks & RWAs. The altcoins are back to performance with most AI tokens, including Injective [INJ] and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance [FET] among others, gaining ground after potentially finishing the correction. Price analysis and market sentiment Injective completed an inverse head and shoulders pattern on the daily timeframe, and a breakout verified at the $11.16 level. Once it settled above the neckline, INJ made a big move up, rising 12% in just a day. The volume followed with an 87% daily rise. The price crossed both the 50-day EMA at $10.81 and the 100-day SMA at $11.16 and continued rising, showing momentum was bullish, and the trend could keep going. As trading increased on the breakout, it proved the structure was strong after the crossover. Should Injective's price remain supported at the neckline and by both averages, it could continue moving upwards and test the $16.50 to $17.00 level in the short run. Source: TradingView However, a failure to hold above $15.00 may trigger a slide back to $12.80—or, in a deeper retracement, to the 100-day SMA near $11.16. If that level breaks, the bullish setup would likely invalidate, opening room for downside risk. At the same time, statistics showed over 95% of respondents thought JasmyCoin [JASMY] and Injective were poised for growth. Due to the strong investor conviction, INJ was probably doing well following ongoing media appearances, keeping the project in the limelight. Read More How FTX can impact ETH's future price movements There were also sentiments of 94.90%, 94.70% and 93.40% for Jupiter [JUP], Virtuals Protocol [VIRTUAL] and Cardano [ADA], respectively. With both INJ's high ratings and the momentum, there was a real chance the protocol's ecosystem could grow over the long term. Injective's annualized volume for iAssets The media presence also helped. Ongoing exposure—including Eric Chen's recent appearance on CNBC—keeps INJ in the spotlight, boosting investor confidence. On top of price action, Injective recently hit a $2 billion annualized trading volume for its tokenized assets (iAssets). These include tokenized stocks and real-world assets (RWAs), key growth areas that are drawing both institutional and retail interest. Source: X While publicity from the DAO can lift the project's credibility, INJ's price responsiveness would rely on continuous platform implementation and changes in the market. An increase in institutional interest could bring upside movement to INJ. However, future growth needed the network to attract users and for the overall market to improve.
CNBC
21-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Bitcoin falls after hitting new record high of $109,500: CNBC Crypto World
On today's episode of CNBC Crypto World, Bitcoin sets a new record price. Plus, the SEC files charges against the crypto firm Unicoin and its top executives for alleged fraud. And, Eric Chen, co-founder of Injective, reacts to bitcoin's new record and provides his outlook for the cryptocurrency.
CNBC
09-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Bitcoin holds above $100,000 while ether rockets to its best week since 2021
Cryptocurrencies extended their rally to end the week, with bitcoin holding steady above the $100,000 level while ether rallied to its best week since 2021. The price of bitcoin was higher by 2% at $103,249.99 on Friday, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as high as $104,324.65, its highest level since Jan. 31. For the week, bitcoin is up more than 6% and on pace for its fourth positive week in a row – and first four-week win streak since November. "This move above $100,000 should be viewed as more than mere euphoria, but rather as evidence of a flows-driven shift," said Gadi Chait, head of investment at bitcoin-native Xapo Bank. "Whales have been accumulating on-chain, ETF demand continues to set new records, and investors seek 'neutral' assets amid a tariff-shadowed macro environment. Meanwhile, the announcement of a U.S.–U.K. 'mini-deal' and hints of tariff relief with China have reduced overall risk aversion, lifting equities, oil, and, notably, Bitcoin." The risk-on sentiment bled into altcoins, or cryptocurrencies that aren't bitcoin, most of which have struggled to keep pace with bitcoin's gains this year. Ether, one of the biggest stragglers, jumped 10%, bringing its two-day gain up to 29%. A 6% increase in the token tied to Solana brought its two-day gain to 16%. This week the Ethereum network also completed its latest technology upgrade, dubbed Pectra, which enables lower network fees, streamlined ether staking and support for smart wallets. Ether is up 25% week to date and on pace for its best week since May 2021. The Solana token has added 14.3% this week, which is on track to be its best week since January. Year to date, however, ether and other major altcoins – with the exception of XRP – are still deep in the red compared to bitcoin. While the flagship crypto is up 10%, ether and the Solana token are down 31% and 12%, respectively. Bitcoin's market structure changed after the introduction of spot bitcoin ETFs in 2024, with demand now coming from retirement accounts, macro funds, and corporate bonds such as Strategy. By contrast, altcoins still rely on crypto-native, risk-on capital, which hasn't shown significant growth alongside the greater tech sector due to the current interest rate environment, according to Eric Chen, Co-Founder of Injective. Bitcoin is likely to keep outperforming until broader capital flows into altcoins, he added, given their steady supply and lack of a structural buyer base, which are likely to take prices lower until they attract speculative interest. "For us, there remains one singular strategy for crypto investors: stick to BTC until risk on headwinds dissipate," Wolfe Research analyst Read Harvey said in a note this week. "The coin is one of just two in our basket positive on the year and it continues to dominate the rest of the space on a relative basis. The question now shifts towards if it can maintain recent outperformance vs. equities, or if Gold was right all along."
