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Tech DeskBlock says Dessa voice AI learned to talk from speech alone United StatesDOJ demands California counties set aside flagged ballots AmplifiedAnberlin — Never Take Friendship Personal Space DeskNASA ends Swift observatory's mission ahead of re-entry Hacking DeskKeystone wallet breach exposes buyers' home addresses AmplifiedEmery — The Question BreakingGunmen kill nine at church funeral in Karak, Jordan Roads DeskCharleston lowers I-64/I-77 speed limit after eight deaths AmplifiedDemon Hunter — Summer of Darkness How-to DeskHow to get your home ready for SA storms Video DeskAvengers: Doomsday World Series spot stars MLB players AmplifiedNorma Jean — Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child Coming SoonNetflix Korea's next wave: Tantara dated, zombies still due AustraliaDonna Nelson home in Perth after Japan prison transfer Film DeskClayface reviews: DC horror opens No. 1 with $10.4M AustraliaHelen Haines now serious but stable after alleged attack AustraliaSA's $1m gambling harm campaign targets online betting Computing Deskgpu-unlock frees full AI tensor speed on RTX 30 cards EV DeskNHTSA proposes cyan lights for driverless cars AI DeskGrok Bot's new Vault saves logins and cards

Sunday 25 October 2026

Block says Dessa voice AI learned to talk from speech alone

Block's lab has unveiled Dessa, a voice model it says was trained only on human conversation and runs on a high-end MacBook Pro. It isn't public yet.

Wren Solace Sunday 25 October 2026, open calendar5 min read

Photo: Myotus / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), cropped

Listen

Free browser voice. Starts at once.

Uses text-to-speech.

Most voice assistants don't really hear you. They turn what you say into text, think about the text, then read an answer back out loud. Block, the payments company behind Square and Cash App, says it's built one that skips the text entirely.

Several microphones on arms around a round table in a podcast recording studio — Photo: Myotus / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), cropped

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Wren Solace Sunday 25 October 2026 at 10:20 pm Adelaide, open calendar5 min read

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