Block unveils Dessa, an AI voice model trained only on human talk
Jack Dorsey's Block says Dessa learned entirely from human speech and can run locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max or better.
Block announced Dessa, an AI voice model the company says was trained from scratch on nothing but human conversation. The company shared recordings of Dessa talking with people, including one in which the model initially addresses the speaker as "Ronaldo."
The Dessa website features sample exchanges, among them a conversation about Christopher Nolan's films and another about a surprise trip to Paris. Dessa's team describes it as a true speech-to-speech model whose knowledge comes entirely from human speech, The Verge reported.
According to the team, Dessa can run locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max or better. Dessa lead Ragavan Thurairatnam shared at least one of the example conversations.
The team cites curiosity, better understanding between humans and AI, and safety as its reasons for building the model. A small group of AI safety researchers will receive early access, the team said.
Quick answers
What is Dessa?
Dessa is an AI voice model announced by Block that was trained from scratch only on human conversation, according to the company.
What hardware does Dessa need?
Block's team says Dessa can run locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max or better.
Who gets early access to Dessa?
A small group of AI safety researchers will get early access to the model, according to the team.