Live Two-Way Chat

Real-time conversational AI with natural speech flow - moving beyond forum-style turn-taking.

Vision

Current chatbot conversations are essentially forums with near-instant replies. Humans don't listen to someone speak, stop, think about the context, then respond with an entire paragraph. Live Two-Way Chat simulates natural human conversation:

The Problem

Traditional chat interfaces:

• Wait for complete user input before processing
• Generate entire responses at once
• Can't be interrupted or course-corrected mid-thought
• Feel robotic and turn-based

The Solution

A real-time bidirectional conversation where:

1. Continuous transcription - Human voice is transcribed in small constant chunks in the background
2. Predictive response preparation - AI analyzes context and pre-prepares replies, modifying them as new context arrives
3. Natural interruption - AI decides when to speak:
   • Sometimes interrupting if an important point needs to be made
   • Sometimes waiting for a question to be asked
4. Bidirectional listening - The chatbot listens even while speaking, taking into account what it was saying when interrupted
5. Shared context window - A visual workspace for files and artifacts

Shared Context Window

A drag-and-drop workspace visible to both human and AI:

Content Type	Behavior
Images	Displayed for user, visible to AI for analysis
Code	Displayed and editable by user, AI can view and modify
Documents	Shared context for conversation
Split view	Window can split to show 2+ files simultaneously

The AI can:

• View what's in the window
• Edit code or text files
• Reference images in conversation
• Suggest changes visually

Technical Challenges

1. Streaming ASR - Real-time speech-to-text with low latency
2. Incremental response generation - Partial responses that can be updated
3. Turn-taking model - When to speak, when to wait, when to interrupt
4. Context threading - Tracking what was said/being-said when interruptions occur
5. Audio ducking - Managing simultaneous speech gracefully

Potential Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Microphone     │────▶│ Streaming ASR    │
│  (continuous)   │     │ (Whisper/etc)    │
└─────────────────┘     └────────┬─────────┘
                                 │ text chunks
                                 ▼
┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Speaker        │◀────│ Response Engine  │
│  (TTS)          │     │ (predictive)     │
└─────────────────┘     └────────┬─────────┘
                                 │
                        ┌────────▼─────────┐
                        │  Context Window  │
                        │  (shared state)  │
                        └──────────────────┘

Inspiration

• Natural human conversations (overlapping speech, interruptions, backchanneling)
• Real-time collaborative editors (Google Docs)
• Voice assistants that feel less robotic
• Pair programming conversations

Related Projects

• Ramble - Voice transcription (could provide ASR component)
• Artifact Editor - Could power the shared context window