Bringing AI to Life: Real-Time Conversational Agents with the TEN Framework
Ever since OpenAI demonstrated the real-time conversational capabilities of GPT-4, it’s as if the movie Her has come to life. Motivated by the breakthrough user experience of new multimodal capabilities, developers are eager to build real-time conversational AI agents. Some open-source workflow builders now offer options for easy-to-use orchestration, but building truly multimodal AI agents remains complex. These agents require ultra-low latency and a sophisticated integration of technologies like chat, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and real-time audio and video communications to create a human-like experience.
Fortunately, with the introduction of TEN (Transformative Extensions Network), developers now have access to the world’s first truly real-time multimodal agent framework, minimizing coding effort and enabling rapid development of next-gen AI applications from scratch.
What is the TEN Framework?
TEN is an open-source framework designed to help developers quickly build real-time multimodal agents, integrating voice, video, data streams, images, and text. With TEN, developers can experiment freely, integrate large language models, and create reusable extensions. Here’s what you can accomplish with TEN:
• Voice Chatbots
• AI-Generated Meeting Summaries
• Language Tutors and Simultaneous Translators
• Virtual Companions and Counseling Applications
With TEN, developers can leverage a variety of AI services and extensions, building flexible, real-time AI agents that think, listen, see, and interact as humans do.
Why Developers Choose TEN
1. Truly Real-Time Multimodal Interaction
TEN supports voice, video, data streams, images, and text with ultra-low latency. This allows seamless interactions, like real-time translations, with optimized data transmission across extensions for end-to-end performance.
2. Broad Programming and Platform Support
Unlike other frameworks limited to a single language, TEN supports Golang, C++, and Python, with Node.js coming soon. It’s compatible across Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile platforms, enabling development flexibility with modular, customizable extensions.
3. Real-Time Responsiveness with Dynamic Workflows
TEN prioritizes immediate responsiveness with real-time state management, delivering synchronized data flows, low latency, adaptive media quality, and multi-user support for interactive, human-like AI experiences.
4. Edge and Cloud Compatibility
With TEN, developers can deploy extensions across both edge and cloud environments, creating a wide range of applications. Smaller models can run on local edge deployments to reduce latency and cost, while large cloud-based language models balance performance and resource needs.
5. Developer-Friendly Interface
TEN’s intuitive visual interface, with drag-and-drop functionality, makes getting started a breeze. For complex requirements, TEN’s open APIs and flexible architecture support custom extensions, making it a robust platform for advanced use cases.
What Can You Build Using the TEN Framework?
With TEN, developers can build AI agents that naturally interact in real-time. Here’s a quick look at the TEN Agent demo:
TEN Agent is a server-side demo that connects multiple extensions to enable real-time audio and video interactions, with support for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) that accesses and leverages local documentation to provide answers. Developers can easily modify prompts and configuration parameters to suit their needs. Check it out now—you’ll be impressed with the AI agent you can create in less than 10 minutes!
For more complex use cases, TEN allows developers to:
• Build custom AI agents with plug-and-play extensions from the community.
• Integrate one or more large language models.
• Manage data flow across modules with TEN Manager, a built-in tool that simplifies extension management.
The Graph Designer tool also allows developers to design workflows using a simple drag-and-drop interface, providing a streamlined experience for even complex projects.
Join the Future of Gen-AI with TEN
The future of generative AI is moving toward voice and video as the primary, natural interfaces for communication. As real-time engagement (RTE) becomes standard, TEN addresses the limitations of existing platforms and provides the flexibility to scale as your needs evolve.
With TEN as your AI agent framework, the only limit is your imagination.
• Access the TEN Agent repo and build your first agent today!
• Be sure to star the repo if you enjoy building and exploring with TEN.
