OpenAI has introduced GPT-Live voice models for ChatGPT, betting that full-duplex speech can make AI assistants more useful for live work.

Interfaze has released diffusion-gemma-asr-small, an open-source ASR model for six languages that tests diffusion decoding as a new path for speech AI.

Amazon introduced an AI-powered shopping feature that generates conversational audio answers to product questions.

Apple has acquired Israeli audio AI startup Q.ai for a reported $2 billion, its second-largest acquisition ever. The move signals a major push into AI, particularly in audio technology for its products like AirPods and Vision Pro.