šŸ¤Æ Sesame's breakthrough AI voice model

Also: DeepSeek shocks with huge 545% AI profits

In partnership with

Welcome, AI enthusiasts

Sesame AI has just announced a groundbreaking conversational voice model in their blog post, crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice. Notably, Sesame AI has confirmed they will open source this model to the public soon.

Letā€™s dive in!

In todayā€™s insights:

  • Sesameā€™s breakthrough AI voice model

  • DeepSeek shocks with huge 545% AI profits

  • Siri's AI overhaul faces Big Delays until 2027

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

Evolving AI: OpenAI launches GPT-4.5, its largest model yet, improving efficiency and performance without being classified as a frontier AI.

Key Points:

  • Brendan Iribe, who created Oculus VR, now leads a startup called Sesame.

  • Sesame made two AI assistants that feels natural to talk with.

  • People are impressed, calling this an "AGI moment" for AI voice technology.

Details:

Most voice assistants today make you wish you could skip the chat. But Sesameā€™s new AI assistants, Maya and Miles, feels different. It has natural pauses and quickly adapts during conversations, making chats feel smooth. Sesame, led by Oculus founder Brendan Iribe, plans AI-powered glasses you can wear daily. Sesame already has funding from big investors and aims to release to open source their models under the Apache 2.0 license soon, helping developers add realistic AI voices to their apps.

Online, Sesame is getting a lot of shocked reactions from people chatting with Maya. This is the most times people have said theyā€™re ā€œfeeling the AGIā€ because itā€™s so much better than anything out there ā€” even OpenAIā€™s voice mode.

Try it out yourself here and be your own judge ā†’

Why It Matters:

Voice assistants from big companies still feel stiff, even after recent updates. But Maya shows a voice assistant can actually feel human. If this catches on, people might finally prefer talking to AI instead of typingā€¦ but are we ready for that shift?

This smart home company grew 200%ā€¦

No, itā€™s not Ring or Nestā€”itā€™s RYSE, a leader in smart shade automation, and you can invest for just $1.90 per share.

RYSEā€™s innovative SmartShades have already transformed how people control their window coverings, bringing automation to homes without the need for expensive replacements.

This year alone, RYSE has seen revenue grow by 200% year over year and expanded into 127 Best Buy stores, with international markets on the horizon. Plus, with partnerships with major retailers like Home Depot and Loweā€™s already in the works, theyā€™re just getting started.

Now is your chance to invest in the company disrupting home automationā€”before they hit their next phase of explosive growth. But donā€™t wait; this opportunity wonā€™t last long.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Email may contain forward-looking statements. See US Offering for details. Informational purposes only.

Source: AP

Evolving AI: DeepSeek claims massive profits from AI models.

Key Points:

  • DeepSeek shared a surprising "theoretical" profit margin of 545% on its AI services.

  • Actual profits are lower due to discounts, limited paid services, and research costs.

  • Unlike competitors, DeepSeek openly shared data and details about their AI models.

Details:

DeepSeek, the infamous Chinese AI startup just 20 months old, made waves by revealing that its AI models could theoretically earn profits more than five times higher than their operating costs. They explained that these impressive margins come from efficiently managing resources like computing power and electricity. But DeepSeek also clarified that real profits are lower because many services aren't fully monetized, and high research costs aren't included. Still, their openness contrasts sharply with the secrecy common in the AI industry.

Why It Matters:

With OpenAI and Anthropic recently raising prices due to high operating costs, DeepSeek's reveal pressures AI companies to rethink efficiency and transparency. If DeepSeek can be profitable while openly sharing details, what does this say about the real costs ā€” and future ā€” of closed AI giants?

Source: Bloomberg

Evolving AI: Apple's big Siri upgrade could take until 2027.

Key Points:

  • Apple's AI development is lagging behind rivals like Google and Microsoft.

  • Siri's planned AI update is delayed, with a modern version unlikely before 2027.

  • Apple struggles with internal setbacks, slow progress, and talent shortages.

Details:

Apple planned a major upgrade for Siri to catch up with competitors. But the project, known internally as "LLM Siri," faces significant delays. Siri currently runs two separate systems ā€” an older version and a newer AI-based one. Apple hopes to combine them by early 2026 but insiders now say a truly modern, conversational Siri might not appear until iOS 20 in 2027. Apple's slow pace and outdated tech are causing it to fall further behind rivals.

Why It Matters:

Apple has faced criticism for moving slowly in the AI race, and with these new setbacks the gap could widen further. Recent progress from companies like Amazonā€™s Alexa+, and Sesame which we discussed earlier, only makes Apple's delays feel worse. Users might begin to question whether waiting for Siri is worth it ā€” or if Apple can ever truly catch up.

 šŸ‘€ Click on the image you think is real

QUICK HITS

šŸ«€ Chinaā€™s first AI cardiologist eases pressure at short-staffed Shanghai hospital.

šŸ’° Chinaā€™s Honor announces $10 billion investment in AI devices.

šŸ”¬ AI detects colorectal cancer with high accuracy.

šŸ„ Salesforce launches library of ready-made AI tools for healthcare.

āš™ļø AI companies race to use ā€˜distillationā€™ to produce cheaper models.

šŸ“¦ Microsoftā€™s new Phi-4 AI models pack big performance in small packages.

šŸšØ Stanford researchers uncover prompt caching risks in AI APIs: Revealing security flaws and data vulnerabilities.

šŸ“ˆ Trending AI Tools

  • šŸŽØ Flora Fauna AI - Node-based generative AI tool designed to maximize creative agency (link)

  • šŸŽžļø Pika 2.2 - Video model 2.2 with improved resolution and longer clips (link)

  • šŸ”ļø  Deep research - OpenAI's Deep research will find, analyze and synthesize hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report minutes (link)

Reply

or to participate.