--- license: other license_name: emu-eula-free-distribution license_link: LICENSE language: - en - vi tags: - on-device - local-ai - multimodal - text-to-speech - speech-to-text - ocr - desktop-app pretty_name: emu — Local Multimodal AI Desktop App --- # emu — AI For The Rest Of Us **emu** is a **local-first, multimodal AI desktop application** that runs state-of-the-art AI models **entirely on your own computer**. Chat with text, images and audio; dictate by voice; have replies read aloud; and extract text from documents — all with a clean, minimal interface, and with **no cloud account, no telemetry, and no network calls for inference**. A product of **CloudKites AI Lab (CloudKites Pty Ltd)**, Sydney, Australia. > 💚 **Free to download, use, and share.** emu is distributed **free of charge**. > You may use it and **redistribute the complete, unmodified installer** for free > (no selling, no paid bundling). See **License** below. > 🎉 **Latest release: version 2.0.0** — a ground-up "zero-config" redesign. See > [**What's new in 2.0.0**](#-whats-new-in-200) below. --- ## ⬇️ Download — which installer do I need? emu 2.0.0 ships for **Windows 10/11 (64-bit)** and **Linux (x86-64)**, each in a **CPU** and a **GPU (CUDA)** edition — identical in features, differing only in the hardware they use. Pick **one** from the table (or the **Files** tab). | Your computer | Edition | Installer | Size | |---|---|---|---| | **Windows + NVIDIA GPU** (GTX 16-series / RTX 20-series or newer) | GPU (CUDA) | [**emu-2.0.0-windows-cuda-setup.exe**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/emu-2.0.0-windows-cuda-setup.exe) | ~758 MB | | **Windows, no NVIDIA GPU** (integrated / AMD / Intel graphics) | CPU | [**emu-2.0.0-windows-cpu-setup.exe**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/emu-2.0.0-windows-cpu-setup.exe) | ~62 MB | | **Linux + NVIDIA GPU** (GTX 16-series / RTX 20-series or newer) | GPU (CUDA) | [**emu-2.0.0-linux-cuda.run**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/emu-2.0.0-linux-cuda.run) | ~866 MB | | **Linux, no NVIDIA GPU** (integrated / AMD / Intel graphics) | CPU | [**emu-2.0.0-linux-cpu.run**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/emu-2.0.0-linux-cpu.run) | ~119 MB | **One quick question decides it:** **do you have an NVIDIA GPU** with Compute Capability 7.5+ (GTX 16-series / RTX 20-series or newer) **and a current NVIDIA driver** (see requirements below)? **Yes →** the **CUDA** edition (fastest; the GPU runtime is bundled, nothing extra to install). **No →** the **CPU** edition (runs on any modern PC; smallest download). AMD and Intel graphics are **not** CUDA GPUs — choose CPU. Not sure? The **CPU** edition runs everywhere — including on machines with a GPU — so it's always a safe choice; you can install the CUDA edition later. The **Windows** installers are **code-signed by CloudKites Pty Ltd** (Microsoft Azure Trusted Signing); the **Linux** `.run` installers are served over HTTPS (Linux has no OS-level code-signing equivalent). All editions are self-contained — the GPU editions bundle the NVIDIA CUDA/cuDNN runtime, so there is nothing else to install. AI models are **not** in the installer; on first run emu offers to download the model bundle(s) you choose into your local models folder, after which everything runs offline. 📄 **Need help choosing or installing?** See [**Download & Installation Guide (PDF)**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/DOWNLOAD_INSTALL_GUIDE.pdf). --- ## 🎉 What's new in 2.0.0 Version 2.0.0 is a ground-up **"zero-config" redesign** — emu now sets itself up for your machine and puts every capability one click away. - **Zero-config setup** — emu detects your CPU, memory and GPU and automatically picks and downloads a chat model that runs well on your hardware. No manual model hunting; sensible defaults out of the box. - **One-tap, unified workspace** — a cleaner single-window layout with one button per task: attach an **Image**, run **OCR**, **dictate** (🎤), and **speak** replies (🔊). Settings are organized and simplified. - **Dedicated image understanding** — a specialized vision model reads and answers questions about your images (identify objects, read signs and labels, describe scenes), in addition to the general multimodal chat. - **Larger, smarter chat** — support for a new flagship chat model on capable GPUs, plus faster on-GPU generation. - **Better documents** — OCR now shows live progress, handles multi-page PDFs, and every extraction is **saved to a document manager** you can reopen and export. - **Voice you can keep** — spoken (text-to-speech) clips are saved for replay and export; **right-click any text to Speak it**; language-aware voice selection. - **Smoother & more robust** — many stability, performance, and quality fixes across chat, speech, and OCR. Everything still runs **100% on your device** — no account, no telemetry, no cloud inference. --- ## 🖥️ Minimum requirements | Component | Minimum | Recommended | |---|---|---| | Operating system | Windows 10/11 (64-bit) **or** Linux (x86-64, modern distro) | Windows 11 / a current Linux distro | | Processor | 64-bit CPU with **AVX2** (Intel 2013+ / AMD 2015+ — virtually any modern CPU) | Recent multi-core CPU | | Memory | **16 GB RAM** | 32 GB RAM | | Free disk | **8 GB** (app + first model) | 20 GB+ | | GPU *(CUDA editions only)* | **NVIDIA**, Compute Capability **7.5+** (Turing / GTX 16-series, RTX 20-series or newer), 6–8 GB VRAM | Compute Capability 8.6+ (RTX 30-series or newer), 12 GB+ VRAM | | NVIDIA driver *(CUDA editions only)* | Driver supporting **CUDA 13** — Windows release **595.xx or newer** (Linux **R595+**); simplest is the **latest** Game Ready / Studio driver | Latest available | | Internet | Once, to download model bundles on first use | — | > **CUDA edition — what you need (and don't).** You only need an **NVIDIA driver**; > **no CUDA Toolkit, cuDNN, or developer tools** are required — the GPU runtime is > bundled and emu ships **prebuilt native GPU code** for a wide range of NVIDIA > GPUs (Turing → Blackwell), so nothing is compiled on your machine. Run > `nvidia-smi` and check that the **CUDA Version** shown is **13.x**; if it is > lower, update your driver. If the GPU or driver is unsupported, emu falls back to > the **CPU** automatically. --- ## 🛠️ Install **Windows:** double-click the `.exe`. If SmartScreen appears, confirm the publisher reads **CLOUDKITES PTY LTD**, choose **Run**, accept the licence, and finish. Shortcuts are created in the Start menu and on the Desktop. **Linux:** make the download executable and run it — `chmod +x emu-2.0.0-linux-*.run && ./emu-2.0.0-linux-*.run` — then follow the installer wizard. It adds an application-menu entry; emu is self-contained (Qt and, for the CUDA edition, the NVIDIA runtime are bundled — you only need an NVIDIA driver). Microphone dictation uses your system recorder (PipeWire/PulseAudio/ALSA), present on any desktop Linux. On first run, open the model picker and let emu download a chat model suited to your hardware. --- ## ✨ Using emu - **Multimodal chat** — type in your language; attach an **image** (with a thumbnail **preview** — OCR it or chat about it) or an **audio** clip. - **🎤 Speech-to-text** — dictate prompts on-device (auto-detect or pick a language). - **🔊 Text-to-speech** — read replies aloud; multiple engines, including on-device **Vietnamese voice cloning**. **Right-click any text to Speak it**, and spoken clips are **saved** for replay/export. - **🔊 Replay/save spoken audio** — replay the last spoken (text-to-speech) clip, or export it to a WAV. - **📄 Document OCR** — `/ocr` (or the image preview's OCR button) an **image or PDF**; extracted text and tables drop into the chat. - **Hardware-aware model picker** — emu detects your CPU/RAM/GPU and offers the models that run well on your machine, defaulting to the best fit. - **Persistent chats**, Markdown rendering, and resource-aware loading. **Settings** cover device (CPU/CUDA/Auto), context length, and more. - **100% private & offline** — every model runs on your CPU or NVIDIA GPU; nothing leaves your device. **English** and **Vietnamese** are first-class across chat, speech, and voice; the chat models natively handle dozens more languages. --- ## 📚 Documentation Read these for full details (also on the **Files** tab): - [**Download & Installation Guide (PDF)**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/DOWNLOAD_INSTALL_GUIDE.pdf) — choosing an edition, downloading, installing, and getting started. - [**User Guide (PDF)**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/USER_GUIDE.pdf) — complete, step-by-step guide to every feature. - [**Product Information (PDF)**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/PRODUCT_INFORMATION.pdf) — full product overview: capabilities, bundled AI models and their licences, system requirements, privacy, and limitations. --- ## 📜 License emu is **proprietary software distributed free of charge** © 2026 CloudKites Pty Ltd (CloudKites AI Lab), ABN 91 633 195 874. It is provided in compiled (binary) form for Windows and Linux (x86-64). - ✅ **Free to use** — personal or commercial, on any number of devices. - ✅ **Free to redistribute** — share the **complete, unmodified** official installer, free of charge, with all notices intact. - ❌ **No selling / no paid bundling**, no modification, no reverse-engineering. - The source code of emu and its Numbat ML toolkit is confidential and is not distributed. "emu", "Numbat" and "CloudKites" are trademarks of CloudKites Pty Ltd. **License documents** (all on the **Files** tab): - [**End-User License Agreement — `LICENSE`**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/LICENSE) (plain text) — the full terms, presented during installation. - [**End-User License Agreement — `LICENSE.pdf`**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/LICENSE.pdf) (formatted PDF) — the same terms. - [**Third-party attributions — `THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md`**](https://huggingface.co/cloudkites/emu/resolve/main/THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md) — licences for the bundled AI models and libraries (Gemma, Qwen, gwen-tts, Pocket TTS, VieNeu-TTS, PP-OCRv6, Qt, NVIDIA CUDA/cuDNN), each used under its own terms. --- ## ⚠️ AI output notice emu uses generative AI models. Output may be inaccurate, incomplete, or fabricated even when it appears confident, and is **not** a substitute for professional advice — verify important information against trusted sources. --- ## 💬 Support & contact Questions or issues? We're happy to help. - **Email:** contact@cloudkites.com - **Website:** https://cloudkites.com/contact
