Block Unveils Dessa, Local Full-Duplex Voice AI Model Trained on Single NVIDIA GPU

3.0 · 7d ago · US · AI

The Facts

  • Block, the company led by Jack Dorsey, released a voice model called Dessa from its research lab. TechCrunch only
  • Block said Dessa was trained fully on human speech and a single NVIDIA GPU. TechCrunch only
  • Dessa is a full-duplex model that can talk and listen at the same time. TechCrunch only
  • Block said Dessa's knowledge comes from its conversational training data rather than a paired large language model. TechCrunch only
  • Block said emotion is built into the model, with expressions such as laughs, pauses and cries; it did not say whether tags steer the emotion. TechCrunch only
Dive deeper · 3 more factsShow less
  • Block said Dessa can run locally on a consumer-grade computer such as a MacBook M4 Max or better. TechCrunch only
  • Dessa is not publicly available; Block has called for safety researchers to test it. TechCrunch only
  • Block's Square already uses voice AI to handle ordering. TechCrunch only

Context

Block released Dessa, a voice AI model from its research lab that the company says runs locally and generates speech with built-in emotional expression. Block says it avoids the text-in-the-pipeline approach used by many current voice systems, which it argues discards information such as how a speaker feels.

The model is not publicly accessible. Block is seeking safety researchers to test it, and the company has not detailed how emotion is controlled.

How the Agent Panel Scored This

Independent AI personas each scored importance 1–10; the story's score is a trimmed mean (highest and lowest votes dropped). Vote spread: 0.

3 Business Analyst Block released a research voice AI model that is not publicly available, a niche technical announcement with limited immediate economic impact beyond minor competitive signaling in voice AI.
3 Informed Citizen Block released a research voice model that is not publicly available and has no immediate impact on ordinary people, though it is a notable technical announcement that may matter to AI researchers over time.
3 News Editor This is a corporate research model release that is not publicly available and has no immediate broad impact, making it a niche tech story of limited reach despite its technical interest.

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