Jack Dorsey’s Block made an AI model that talks to you like an awkward new friend

Block announced Dessa, an AI model trained "from scratch on nothing but human conversation," and shared sample chats that can be awkward and uncanny, including one where it mistakes the speaker for someone named "Ronaldo." The team describes Dessa as a "true speech-to-speech model" that can run locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max "or better," citing curiosity, better understanding between humans and AI, and safety as reasons for building it. Block says it will give "a small group of AI safety researchers" early access to the model.