New York startup Hume has launched EVI 3, an advanced conversational AI model that lets users create custom synthetic voices through voice-to-voice interaction. The technology targets applications from customer support to virtual companionship, according to reporting by Carl Franzen for VentureBeat. Users can specify personality traits, vocal qualities, and emotional tones to generate voices ranging … Read more
Nvidia has launched a new open-source automatic speech recognition (ASR) model called Parakeet-TDT-0.6B-v2. According to VentureBeat reporter Carl Franzen, the model can transcribe 60 minutes of audio in just one second when running on Nvidia’s GPU hardware. The new model currently tops the Hugging Face Open ASR Leaderboard with a word error rate of only … Read more
A startup called Nari Labs has released Dia, a new open-source text-to-speech model designed to produce naturalistic dialogue. According to VentureBeat reporter Carl Franzen, the 1.6 billion parameter model rivals offerings from ElevenLabs, OpenAI, and Google’s NotebookLM. Co-creator Toby Kim developed Dia “with zero funding” and Google’s support through access to TPU chips. The model … Read more
Groq and PlayAI have partnered to create Dialog, a text-to-speech system that delivers more natural-sounding voice AI. According to Michael Nuñez of VentureBeat, the system combines PlayAI’s voice technology with Groq’s high-speed inference platform. Dialog features an “adaptive speech contextualizer” that maintains awareness of conversation flow, allowing responses with appropriate tone and emotion. The system … Read more
OpenAI has introduced three new AI models designed to enhance speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities. The models gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe, and gpt-4o-mini-tts offer improved accuracy and customization options for developers building voice applications. According to OpenAI, the new transcription models significantly outperform their predecessor, Whisper, particularly in noisy environments and with various accents. The company’s internal benchmarks … Read more
Most AI voice cloning services have inadequate protections against nonconsensual voice impersonation, according to a Consumer Reports investigation. The study examined six leading publicly available tools and found that five had easily bypassed safeguards. As reported by NBC News, four services (ElevenLabs, Speechify, PlayHT, and Lovo) merely require checking a box confirming authorization, while Resemble … Read more
ElevenLabs has released Scribe v1, a new speech-to-text model achieving record accuracy rates across 99 languages. According to Carl Franzen of VentureBeat, the model outperforms competitors from Google, OpenAI, and Deepgram with a 96.7% accuracy rate for English. Scribe can distinguish up to 32 different speakers in a single audio file and detect non-verbal elements … Read more
Sesame, a startup led by Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, has unveiled a new AI voice assistant called Maya that aims to cross “the uncanny valley of conversational voice.” According to a recent article by technology journalist Sean Hollister, Maya offers more natural and engaging conversations compared to existing voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s … Read more
Hume AI has introduced Octave, a new text-to-speech system that can generate emotionally nuanced AI voices for content creation. As reported by Carl Franzen for VentureBeat, this large language model can adjust tone, rhythm, and cadence based on textual context. Users can fine-tune emotions at the sentence level through simple text prompts like “happier” or … Read more
Spotify has expanded its AI audiobook capabilities through a new partnership with ElevenLabs, a leading AI voice technology provider. As reported by Jess Weatherbed for The Verge, the streaming platform will now accept audiobooks created using ElevenLabs’ voice synthesis software. The service supports narration in 29 languages and requires a Pro subscription of $99 monthly … Read more