GitHub Repository

Make Local AI Toys, Robots, Devices that work with a MacBook and an Arduino ESP32

135 starsTypeScript

I built a free CharacterAI that runs locally

Name: I built a free CharacterAI that runs locally
Availability: InStock
Author: akadeb

by akadeb·Mar 25, 2026·8 points·4 comments

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AI Analysis

●●●BangerZero to OneWizardrySolve My Problem

Free local CharacterAI with voice cloning under 10s audio, plus ESP32 hardware integration.

Strengths

•Fully local pipeline: Whisper-Turbo + Qwen3.5-9B + Qwen3-TTS-0.6B on Apple Silicon
•ESP32 websocket transport enables physical toys and robots, not just software
•Clone any voice with under 10 seconds of audio, supports 10+ languages

Weaknesses

•Apple Silicon only via MLX, no Windows or Linux support yet
•34 stars suggests early stage, may have rough edges in production use

Post Description

CharacterAI has over 20M active users and lets people talk to AI voice clones. I built a local alternative that clones any voice with <10s of audio and can talk fluently in over 10 languages, and runs locally on your Macbook or Mac mini.

The voice pipeline currently supports MLX on any M1 through M5 chip. I used Whisper-Turbo for STT, Qwen3.5-9B-4bit for the LLM and Qwen3-TTS-0.6B-4bit for TTS.

The repo also has a Websocket Transport to add these voices to devices powered by the ESP32 via secure websockets.