Speech-Only Models and New AI Security Funds
Teams are experimenting with voice assistants that skip written text entirely. Meanwhile, governments are funding new centers to monitor biological risks.
Block Announces Dessa Speech Model for Local Devices
Block introduced the speech model Dessa on October 24, 2026. The system was trained entirely on human conversation without using text or pretrained models. Dessa runs locally on laptops powered by Apple M4 Max chips or better. It allows full-duplex conversations, meaning people can speak and hear replies at the same time. Currently, the project is a research preview with a waitlist. Block has not yet released model weights, pricing, or formal benchmarks.
What it means: Processing raw voice directly skips the slow conversion into text. In our view, running this locally could make spoken assistants feel much more natural.
Example: A user interrupts the assistant during an explanation, and the software pauses immediately to answer the new question.
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UK Pledges £600M for AI Safety and Biosecurity
The UK government unveiled an AI investment package worth about £600 million on October 24, 2026. The plan includes £100 million for a biosecurity lab. OpenAI and Anthropic are providing up to £200 million in model compute credits.
What it means: Public authorities are actively building testing grounds to assess risks before advanced models reach wide deployment.
Example: Scientists in the new laboratory evaluate whether advanced systems can assist bad actors in creating hazardous chemicals.
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