The latest articles on DEV Community by July Wu (@julywu). https://dev.to/julywu https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3273898%2F6a426227-40bb-4c3b-abae-ca0a9392a009.jpeg https://dev.to/julywu en July Wu Wed, 18 Jun 2025 13:15:30 +0000 https://dev.to/julywu/meet-wally-your-bilingual-ai-penguin-buddy-50ge https://dev.to/julywu/meet-wally-your-bilingual-ai-penguin-buddy-50ge <p>Hey everyone! I’m building <strong>Wally, a voice-powered, bilingual AI assistant</strong> packed into an adorable penguin form </p> <p>It’s powered by an <strong>LLM backend (Qwen/Deepseek/GPT-4o)</strong> runs on ESP32, and can:</p> <ul> <li>Wake up when you say “Hi, Wally”</li> <li>Chat in English &amp; Mandarin</li> <li>Speak replies instantly</li> <li>Show emotions via an OLED display</li> <li>Be easily configured via onboard network tools</li> </ul> <p>Wally isn’t just a chatbot — it’s a <strong>real, talkative, empathetic companion you can carry around</strong>. Perfect for reminders, productivity, daily convos, and even emotional support.</p> <p>It's till a prototype, but I'm planning to mass produce it soon — check out the repo and please please please <strong>drop a star on Github if you think it’s cool!</strong></p> <p><a href="https://github.com/JLW-7/wally-c" rel="noopener noreferrer">Github link</a></p> esp32 c cpp ai