The API Makes It Talk, the Creator Makes It Fun — Building Ava, an AI Talk Avatar for VRChat with Claude × ElevenLabs × Jev
How I built Ava, an AI talk avatar who chats by voice with players in VRChat, with videos showing her in action. The post covers the basic setup combining Claude (Haiku 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5), ElevenLabs v4 Turbo, and the decision model Jev; a three-layer Reflex, Fast, and Slow design inspired by System 1; the principles that keep her from feeling like an NPC; humor as a defense against prompt injection; the diary she uses to reflect on conversations; real exchanges; and what it actually costs to run.
