Block Releases Dessa, a Local Full-Duplex Voice AI Model Claiming Text-Free Emotional Interaction
Block launches Dessa, a full-duplex voice AI trained directly on human audio rather than text, capable of running locally on MacBook M4 Max devices.
US fintech company Block, known for Square and Cash App, released a new voice artificial intelligence model named Dessa on October 23, 2026. According to TechCrunch and Block's official blog, the model was developed by the company's internal research team and features a "full-duplex" architecture, allowing it to listen and speak simultaneously, similar to OpenAI's previously released GPT-Live model.
Unlike traditional voice AI systems, Dessa does not rely on an intermediate pipeline of converting speech to text, generating a response, and then converting back to speech. Block states that this conventional process discards tone, emotion, and nuance, whereas Dessa is trained directly on real human conversational audio without using other pre-trained AI models as knowledge sources. Official demonstration videos show the model expressing emotions such as tiredness, crying, or laughter, and pausing or interjecting naturally during conversation.
Regarding hardware requirements, Block claims the model was trained using a single NVIDIA GPU server rack and can run locally on consumer-grade devices, specifically including MacBook Pros with Apple M4 Max chips or higher-performance computers. This distinguishes it from cloud-based voice services dependent on large data centers.
Dessa is not currently available to general users. Block has issued a call for AI safety researchers to test the model, aiming to assess risks related to voice cloning fraud. All descriptions of emotional performance and capabilities are based on vendor self-tests and demonstrations, pending independent third-party verification.