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Kraken: LLM-based Speech-to-Speech Translation via Low-bitrate VQ and Dual-path Source Conditioning

Kraken speech-to-speech translation model builds on Qwen3-8B with low-bitrate vector quantization and source-conditioned vocoding.

Kraken augments a pre-trained Qwen3-8B LLM with speech feature inputs and low-bitrate single-layer vector-quantized tokens trained to reconstruct SSL features. A separate token-to-waveform decoder, Autowave-X, is conditioned on source speech to improve non-linguistic transfer. Training used 150k hours of multilingual and multitask speech data. The model reportedly beats SeamlessM4T-Large v2 and Qwen2.5-Omni in translation quality and speaker/prosody transfer.

arXiv cs.AI / cs.LG / cs.CL · 4d agoAI research1

Google Releases Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking for Production Grade Voice Agents

Google launches Gemini 3.8 Live and Extended Thinking speech-to-speech models for production voice agents, topping speech-to-speech benchmarks.

Google released Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, native speech-to-speech models for real-time voice agents, available hosted via the Gemini Live API and AI Studio. Extended Thinking ranks #1 on Artificial Analysis' Speech-to-Speech Quality Index with 82.6, scores 68.6% on τ-Voice, 35.1% on Sierra's τ-Voice-banking, and 97.7% on Big Bench Audio. The models support asynchronous function calling, near-real-time visual context, alphanumeric precision, and 97 languages, priced at $0.005/min audio input and $0.018/min audio output. All generated audio carries Google DeepMind's imperceptible SynthID watermark.

Google launches Gemini 3.8 Live to take on OpenAI's GPT-Live-1 at a fraction of the cost

Google DeepMind launches Gemini 3.8 Live speech-to-speech models, topping Artificial Analysis leaderboard at 82.6% with much cheaper pricing than OpenAI.

Google DeepMind released Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, audio models for voice agents available through the Gemini API and Google AI Studio, supporting over 97 languages plus background API calls and visual input. The Extended Thinking variant ranks first on the Artificial Analysis Speech-to-Speech Leaderboard with 82.6%, ahead of OpenAI's GPT-Live-1 models. Google charges $0.005 per minute for audio input and $0.018 for output, versus OpenAI's $0.05 per minute, though OpenAI retains full-duplex conversation quality advantages.

The Decoder · 3h agoModel release

Gradium Launches Voice Design: Write a Prompt, Get a Brand New Synthetic Voice in Seconds

Gradium, a Kyutai spinout, launched Voice Design, generating custom synthetic voices from text descriptions in seconds across five languages.

Gradium, a Paris-based voice AI company spun out of Kyutai, launched Voice Design, which generates new synthetic voices from 1-500 character text descriptions in seconds without needing reference audio or speaker consent. The feature is live in the Gradium API and Studio, free on every plan including the free tier, and kept voices run on the standard streaming TTS endpoint at the same latency as catalog voices. Vendor-run blind pairwise listening tests across 7,627 comparisons report a 72.6% win rate, 13.6 points ahead of ElevenLabs at 59.0%, placing first in all five tested languages, with the largest margins on regional accents such as Quebecois French (97%).

MarkTechPost · 6d agoAI industry