{"slug": "block-unveils-dessa-a-full-duplex-speech-model-trained-only-on-speech", "title": "Block Unveils Dessa, a Full-Duplex Speech Model Trained Only on Speech", "summary": "Block's AI lab released Dessa, a full-duplex speech-to-speech model trained only on human conversation audio, according to MarkTechPost. Dessa runs locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max, but Block published no model size, benchmarks or weights. The release gives developers a locally runnable conversational speech model while leaving its performance unverifiable against published evaluations.", "body_md": "Block’s AI lab released Dessa, a full-duplex speech-to-speech model trained only on human conversation audio. It runs locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max, but Block has published no size, benchmarks or weights.\n\nThe post [Block Unveils Dessa, a Full-Duplex Speech Model Trained Only on Speech](https://www.marktechpost.com/2026/10/29/block-dessa-full-duplex-speech-model/) appeared first on [MarkTechPost](https://www.marktechpost.com).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-unveils-dessa-a-full-duplex-speech-model-trained-only-on-speech", "canonical_source": "https://www.marktechpost.com/2026/10/29/block-dessa-full-duplex-speech-model/", "published_at": "2026-10-29 07:50:39+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-29 08:48:44.772334+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "machine-learning", "ai-products", "natural-language-processing"], "entities": ["Block", "Dessa", "MarkTechPost", "MacBook Pro M4 Max"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-unveils-dessa-a-full-duplex-speech-model-trained-only-on-speech", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-unveils-dessa-a-full-duplex-speech-model-trained-only-on-speech.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-unveils-dessa-a-full-duplex-speech-model-trained-only-on-speech.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-unveils-dessa-a-full-duplex-speech-model-trained-only-on-speech.jsonld"}}