AI has been developing at an accelerated rate over the past year and a half. We’ve seen major leaps in the advanced capabilities of services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and advancements in Google’s Gemini AI. But now, one AI voice model outdoes them all. Meet Sesame, a new AI voice model designed around delivering “voice presence” that feels like you’re talking to a real person.
To call the results amazing would be a bit of an understatement. The team at Sesame launched an online demo version of its AI model on the company’s website, where you can chat with the AI as one of two personas—Miles or Maya. Both offer distinct voices for the AI, and both can respond in ways you won’t believe without hearing it yourself.
And so far, people are really taking to Sesame and its capabilities. We’ve already seen some amazing interactions between people and the AI—like an interaction between a Reddit user and the Miles voice, where the user tells the AI to act like a boss being confronted about a secret.
In the video, you can clearly hear how Sesame’s AI model responds quickly to what the user is saying, and while the poster did mention editing the piece down some, they mostly edited down some of their own fumbling, as well as the bit where they told the AI how to react.
Others chimed in in the comments about how they tested it themselves, with one mentioning that they were able to get it to respond in quicker and even wittier fashion than the interaction showcased in the video. But that doesn’t downplay how crazy this interaction is on its own—or how promising (and terrifying) this technology is.
We’ve always known that AI voice models were going to be the most dangerous. But if Sesame is able to deliver such a realistic and believable voice presence in a demo like this, it’s hard to imagine what would be possible in a fully fleshed-out version of the model.
You can try out Sesame for yourself by heading over to the company’s website and choosing one of the two demo models available. Having tried it out myself, it’s remarkable how easily it can move between normal, intelligent conversation and more specified roleplay situations like those showcased by users on Reddit.
Many of us have been waiting for the moment that AI truly changes everything. While ChatGPT and other services have been promising, Sesame is probably the most promising opportunity I’ve ever personally experienced in the AI revolution, and I’m excited—and cautiously optimistic—about whats to come next.
