MiniMax just launched Speech-02, a new text-to-speech model capable of processing up to 200,000 characters in a single prompt from any file or URL. It supports over 30 languages, unlimited voice cloning, and sub-second streaming, aiming directly at long-form audiobook and podcast generation.
ElevenLabs just rolled out Actor Mode to everyone inside Studio, allowing creators to guide AI voice delivery using their own voice. It gives users hands-on director control over inflection, pacing, and tone instead of relying purely on text prompts.
Krisp just rolled out a real-time accent conversion feature in beta on its desktop app, starting with turning Indian English into U.S. English. The tool keeps the speaker's original voice intact and only swaps phonemes on the fly. Krisp claims enterprise tests boosted sales conversion by 26%, though early tests note the audio still sounds slightly unnatural and misses words.
Groq just partnered with PlayAI to deploy its Dialog text-to-speech model on GroqCloud, featuring English and native Arabic support. Using PlayAI's adaptive contextualizer alongside Groq's LPUs, the model responds with conversation-aware emotion at up to 140 characters per second—roughly 10x faster than real time. Why it matters: developers can now build voice agents with near-zero latency and convincing prosody directly on a single inference platform.
Otter just launched three new AI agents, led by a voice-activated Meeting Agent that can verbally answer questions during calls. It taps into your company's historical meeting archive to retrieve answers, schedule follow-ups, and draft emails. The feature is currently rolling out on Zoom, with Teams and Google Meet support coming soon.
Cartesia just raised a $64M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins to build out its real-time voice AI platform. Alongside the funding, the startup officially launched Sonic 2.0, its next-gen voice model aimed at cutting latency and powering the next wave of interactive voice apps.
ElevenLabs just cut speech-to-text pricing by 45% at scale and made its Scribe model completely free via the UI until April 9. The model boasts high accuracy across 99 languages. It is an aggressive move to undercut rivals and attract developers needing high-volume transcription.
Meta is reportedly gearing up to launch Llama 4 in just a few weeks, putting a major focus on native voice capabilities. Meta CPO Chris Cox confirmed it will be an "omni" model handling speech and text natively, allowing users to interrupt mid-sentence like ChatGPT's Voice Mode. The rush comes as DeepSeek's open-source gains pushed Meta into overdrive.
ElevenLabs just launched its voice AI models on Google Cloud Marketplace. Enterprises can now easily pair ElevenLabs' lifelike speech generation with Google's fast Gemini 2.0 Flash model to build real-time conversational agents, localized dubbing, and marketing voiceovers within their existing cloud setup.
Prime Video just started experimenting with AI-assisted dubbing for select licensed movies and TV shows. The initial test covers 12 titles previously lacking dubbed tracks, offering English and Latin American Spanish with human localization pros reviewing the output for quality control.
Perplexity just rolled out a new voice mode to its macOS desktop app. Mac users can now trigger hands-free search anytime by hitting ⌘ + ⇧ + M. The update is live right now on the Mac App Store.
xAI just rolled out its Voice Mode to all iOS users on the Grok app for free, removing the need for a paid subscription. The update brings natural conversational AI straight to any iOS device running the official app. It is a clear push to grab daily voice users from rival assistants.
Deutsche Telekom just partnered with ElevenLabs to embed its Gen FM audio tech directly into the Magenta AI app, letting users turn news articles into podcasts in seconds. The telecom giant also invested in ElevenLabs’ Series C round. It signals a major shift toward making AI speech a default smartphone interface.
ElevenLabs just integrated Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet into its Conversational AI platform. Developers can now combine the hybrid-reasoning model with realistic voice synthesis, building voice agents that handle nuanced queries with fewer hallucinations and tighter context tracking.
Microsoft just unveiled Dragon Copilot, a unified voice AI assistant for healthcare that combines Dragon Medical One's dictation with DAX Copilot's ambient listening. Clinicians can draft notes in real time, automate clinical orders, and search trusted medical sources, saving roughly five minutes per encounter. It arrives in the U.S. and Canada this May.
Apple is reportedly facing major AI rollout delays, with a ChatGPT-like conversational Siri pushed back to iOS 20 at best. Internal data also indicates that real-world Apple Intelligence usage is 'extremely low', leaving iOS 19 with few significant AI upgrades.
The world’s largest call center operator Teleperformance is deploying Sanas AI to neutralize the accents of its Indian customer support reps with zero latency. Management insists turning accents into neutral English cuts handling times and boosts satisfaction, but investors weren't convinced by the $104 million AI roadmap, dragging its stock down 11%.
Sesame just came out of stealth with a remarkably expressive voice AI and plans for wearable companion glasses. Backed by top venture firms and led by Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, the assistant handles natural interruptions and banter with ease, with open-source models supporting 20+ languages slated for the coming months.
Microsoft just introduced Phi-4-multimodal and Phi-4-mini, a pair of lightweight models built for edge hardware and Copilot+ PCs. The 5.6B multimodal variant natively ingests speech, vision, and text in a single architecture, topping open speech recognition leaderboards while staying compact enough to run smoothly on-device.
Microsoft just rolled out its Copilot app to Mac computers, allowing users to summon the assistant over any app via the Option-Space shortcut. It includes Copilot Daily for podcast-style news roundups alongside voice chat that gracefully handles mid-sentence interruptions and corrections.
