Sesame's Game-Changing TTS Model: A Deep Dive into the Future of Voice AI
Sesame Just Changed the TTS Game—But Don't Panic (Yet)
When Sesame dropped their new Conversational Speech Model (CSM), I felt like I was experiencing voice AI magic for the very first time—again. Remember how blown away we all were by OpenAI's Advanced Voice Mode? Sesame just pulled off an encore that raised the bar even higher. Their concept of "voice presence" isn't just hype; it genuinely feels like a digital companion that understands and reacts with real emotional intelligence and nuance.
The Fine Print
But before employees at TTS companies all start dusting off our resumes, let's talk about the fine print.
Sesame's impressive demo still runs into those familiar, frustrating quirks we've all encountered with autoregressive voice models: audio hallucinations and unpredictable outputs. Integrating "what to say" seamlessly with "how to say it" creates remarkable realism, sure, but also a reliability nightmare—especially for enterprise-grade use cases. Companies simply can't afford an AI that occasionally veers off-script.
Scaling Challenges and Industry Impact
As we've seen with GPT's progression from 3.5 through 4.5, scaling up models usually tames hallucinations. But there's a catch—bigger, smarter models mean higher latency and spiraling costs. So, widespread adoption of Sesame's groundbreaking TTS tech won't happen overnight. Plus, the continuous generation nature of their system makes intervention (think capitalization cues and acronym handling we've mastered at Prim Voices) significantly trickier.
Translation: TTS providers like ElevenLabs—and yes, Prim Voices—can breathe easy, at least for now.
The Open Source Game-Changer
But here's the twist that could change everything: Sesame is open-sourcing this beast. That's great news for and for consunmers, but keep an eye on China considering how rapidly and aggressively Chinese research labs have been pushing voice tech innovation. China has immense appetite to take innovate and opensource voice tech. Over the next 6–9 months, expect a wave of innovation, creative experimentation, and possibly even radical shifts in TTS tech—all driven by researchers who will soon have access to Sesame's groundbreaking model.
Looking Ahead
In short, Sesame just gave us a thrilling glimpse into the future of voice technology. Sure, we've got time before it reshapes our industry completely, but the writing is on the wall: The race to deliver the ultimate conversational AI experience is on, and Prim Voices is ready to run.