Jack Dorsey's Block unveiled Dessa, a voice AI trained purely on human conversation that can run locally on a MacBook M4 Max.
Block announced Dessa, a voice model trained 'from scratch on nothing but human conversation,' with output described as eerily humanlike. The company says the model can run entirely on-device on a MacBook M4 Max, avoiding cloud inference costs and latency.
Block shared sample conversations showing the model's occasionally awkward, very human-sounding responses, positioning the release as a technical showcase rather than a finished product.
On-device voice AI that skips cloud inference changes the cost and privacy math for any company building voice products, from customer service to hardware. Leaders evaluating voice agents should watch whether Dessa's approach gets productized or stays a research demo.
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