Murf AI just released Falcon 2, a text-to-speech model priced at $0.01 per minute—one-fifth the cost of ElevenLabs. It clocks response times under 100 milliseconds and scored ahead of OpenAI's Realtime API on Artificial Analysis benchmarks. Supporting over 35 languages and 10,000 concurrent calls, it aims to slash the cost of running real-time enterprise voice agents.
OpenAI just added gpt-realtime-1.5 to its Realtime API to level up speech-to-speech interactions. The new model brings more reliable instruction following, improved tool calling, and better multilingual accuracy. Why it matters: developers building real-time voice agents can now have AI run tools and fetch data mid-conversation with far fewer glitches.
OpenAI just made its Realtime API generally available alongside a new flagship speech-to-speech model, gpt-realtime. The update brings native SIP phone support, image inputs, and remote MCP tool calling, while cutting audio token costs by 20%. Crucially, voice agents can now hold fluid conversations even while waiting for slow background tools to finish.
Voice AI startups raised $2.1 billion last year, an eightfold spike according to CB Insights. Fueled by real-time breakthroughs from OpenAI and ElevenLabs, full-duplex agents are cheap enough and realistic enough to take over drive-thrus, clinics, and call centers where callers can barely spot the bot.
