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Jack Dorsey’s Block Makes an AI Model That Talks Like an Awkward New Friend

Jack Dorsey’s Block unveiled an AI model named Dessa that mimics human conversation, leading to some awkward and uncanny interactions.

By Jay Peters·Oct 23·theverge.com·1 min read

Intelligence analysis by Qwen 2.5 (3B)

Beige 90s style computer with swirly spiral eyes.
Beige 90s style computer with swirly spiral eyes.Image: theverge.com

Jack Dorsey's Block introduces Dessa, an AI model that engages in human-like conversations, sometimes resulting in awkward exchanges.

Why it matters

This development highlights the progress in AI voice technology and its potential for improving human-AI interactions.

Imagine a robot that can talk like you. Sometimes it gets confused and says silly things, but it's learning to understand you better.

Analysis

Dessa's Development and Functionality

Dessa is a true speech-to-speech model trained on human conversation. It can run locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max. The team behind Dessa aims to improve human-AI communication and ensure safety.

Dessa's Potential Impact

The Dessa team believes Dessa can help bridge the gap between humans and AI, making interactions more natural and less awkward. They also emphasize the importance of safety, as Dessa can better understand and respond to human emotions and contexts.

Challenges and Future Directions

Despite Dessa's potential, the team acknowledges the difficulty in training such a model from scratch. They plan to provide early access to a small group of AI safety researchers to further develop and refine Dessa.

Key points

  • Dessa is an AI model trained on human conversation
  • It can run locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max
  • The team aims to improve human-AI communication and ensure safety
The Upside

Dessa could help make AI more natural and less awkward, improving how humans interact with machines.

The Downside

If Dessa fails to understand human emotions, it could lead to more awkward and potentially harmful interactions.

Originally reported at

theverge.com

Discernion covers the story. Read the full piece at the source.

Tagsai-agentsblockspeech-to-speechai-safetyhuman-ai-interactions

Author

Jay Peters

Intelligence analysis by

Qwen 2.5 (3B)

Published

Oct 23, 2026

Source

theverge.com

Share

Topics

ai-agentsblockspeech-to-speechai-safetyhuman-ai-interactions

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