{"rewrite":{"id":"r_43b2d722e403f6f020bd1fcd","clusterId":"c_4a5939524ffd4be47c41f82a","slug":"block-announces-dessa-a-voice-ai-trained-only-on-conversational-speech","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"Block Announces Dessa, A Voice AI Trained Only On Conversational Speech","summary":"Block, the company led by CEO Jack Dorsey, announced Dessa, a voice conversation model trained only on human speech rather than text. Its development team says Dessa responds while a person is still speaking, chimes in, and laughs at utterances. It was trained on a single NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 and can run locally on a MacBook Pro with an M4 Max. Neither the API nor the model has been released, and Block is recruiting AI safety researchers.","whyItMatters":"Dessa is a voice model built from speech rather than text, and the gap between the announcement and a working release is now occupied by an AI safety review, not a launch date.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eThe team behind Dessa came out of a Toronto startup of the same name that has researched AI since 2012, and now works as a small research group inside Block. Its results go directly to Dorsey. The announced model handles conversation differently from voice assistants built on text LLMs: it can overlap a speaker, interject, and laugh in response, rather than waiting for a pause. In one demonstration it helps a user recall a game title by offering \u0026#34;Majora\u0026#39;s Mask?\u0026#34; mid-conversation. What exists today is a demonstration and a safety hiring call.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Dessa's skill is trained on speech alone, so it likely carries conversational timing that transcript-based models flatten. Block is hiring AI safety researchers before any API or model ships.","twitterPost":"Dessa learns timing from speech alone, not transcript text, so its interruptions and laughs may come closer to real turn-taking.","threadsPost":"Block's Dessa has no text input in training, so it may model turn-taking and timing more directly than transcript-based assistants. It runs on a MacBook Pro, and Block is hiring AI safety staff before releasing the model or API.","newsletterBlurb":"Block, led by Jack Dorsey, announced Dessa, a voice conversation model trained only on human speech. The team says it can interject and overlap a speaker instead of waiting for a pause, and that it runs locally on an M4 Max MacBook Pro. No API or model has been released, and Block is recruiting AI safety researchers to verify risks.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"GIGAZINE\",\"url\":\"https://gigazine.net/news/20261026-dessa-conversation-ai/\",\"title\":\"Block, led by Jack Dorsey, announces \\\"Dessa,\\\" an AI capable of quite human-like conversation, trained only on conversational audio with text omitted and able to run locally on a MacBook Pro\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":4698,"outputTokens":604,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1792982976,"createdAt":"2026-10-26T02:43:45.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-10-26T02:48:34.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T02:48:34.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_4a5939524ffd4be47c41f82a","canonicalTitle":"かなり人間っぽい会話が可能なAI「Dessa」をジャック・ドーシー率いるBlockが発表、テキストを省いて会話音声のみで訓練しMacBook Proでローカル実行可能","representativeArticleId":"a_251bd5fd77cf379e33b67eca","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"Dessa\"],\"studios\":[\"Block\"],\"people\":[\"Jack Dorsey\"],\"type\":\"announcement\",\"domain\":\"other\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-10-26T01:59:00.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-10-26T01:59:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T02:48:34.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"GIGAZINE","url":"https://gigazine.net/news/20261026-dessa-conversation-ai/","title":"かなり人間っぽい会話が可能なAI「Dessa」をジャック・ドーシー率いるBlockが発表、テキストを省いて会話音声のみで訓練しMacBook Proでローカル実行可能"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["Dessa"],"studios":["Block"],"people":["Jack Dorsey"],"type":"announcement","domain":"other","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null,"pageLinks":{"healthSlugs":["dessa","block","jack-dorsey"],"storySlugs":[],"entities":[{"slug":"dessa","supported":0,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":2,"overall":"unverified","story_count":1,"has_dossier":false},{"slug":"block","supported":0,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":1,"overall":"unverified","story_count":1,"has_dossier":false},{"slug":"jack-dorsey","supported":0,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":1,"overall":"unverified","story_count":4,"has_dossier":true}],"stories":[],"entitiesOk":true,"storiesOk":true}}