Companies

Block

A payments and software company that runs an AI research lab and released the Dessa voice model.

1 story, first covered on Nov 1, 2026.

Every story about Block (1)

New modelsBlock unveils Dessa, a voice AI that learns only by listening to humans talkHerald of AI

New models

Block unveils Dessa, a voice AI that learns only by listening to humans talk

A new AI from Block talks and listens at the same time — and it was trained only on human speech, not on text.

Nov 1, 2026 · 4 min read