Google releases SpeciesNet, an AI model to identify wildlife
Google has open sourced SpeciesNet, an artificial intelligence model designed to automatically identify animal species from photos captured by camera traps.
AI startup ElevenLabs, known for its cutting-edge audio-generation technology, has unveiled its first stand-alone speech-to-text model, named Scribe.
The company, fresh off a $180 million funding round and valued at $3.3 billion, is now expanding its technology portfolio to compete in the speech detection arena.
Scribe supports over 99 languages at launch, with more than 25 languages achieving an “excellent” accuracy rating—defined as a word error rate of less than 5%. This list includes English, with a claimed accuracy rate of 97%, as well as French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Kannada, Malayalam, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Other languages are categorized into high, good, and moderate accuracy levels based on their word error rates.
According to benchmark tests using FLEURS and Common Voice datasets, Scribe has outperformed competitors such as Google Gemini 2.0 Flash and OpenAI’s Whisper Large V3 across multiple languages. Previously, ElevenLabs developed a speech-to-text component for its AI conversational agent platform, but Scribe marks the first time the company is releasing a dedicated, stand-alone speech detection model.
CEO Mati Staniszewski told TechCrunch last month, “We want to understand what’s being said by you in a conversation better. We are working on ways to move away from only generating content and understanding and transcribing speech.” He noted that while many consider speech-to-text a solved problem, performance for many languages remains suboptimal. “We think we can build better speech detection models because we have in-house teams to annotate data and give us quick feedback,” Staniszewski added.
In addition to accurate transcription, Scribe incorporates smart speaker diarization to identify who is speaking, provides word-level timestamps for precise subtitle generation, and auto-tags sound events such as audience laughter. The model currently processes pre-recorded audio formats, and ElevenLabs plans to release a low-latency real-time version in the near future, which would extend its use to meeting transcriptions and live voice note-taking.
Scribe is priced competitively at $0.40 per hour of transcribed audio, although some rival services offer lower prices with different feature sets. As ElevenLabs continues to push the boundaries of generative AI technology, the launch of Scribe marks another significant step in expanding its influence across both audio-generation and speech detection markets.
Tensions flare in the India-France Rafale deal as France refuses to share the fighter jet’s source code, limiting India’s ability to integrate indigenous weapons and reducing its combat autonomy.
France has rejected India’s request to share source codes needed to integrate indigenous weapons into Rafale fighter jets. Despite repeated appeals, French manufacturer Dassault Aviation has refused to compromise on the issue
AnewZ takes to the streets of Yerevan and Baku to ask a simple yet deeply complex question: How do you see peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan? In the first part of our special report, we hear the hopes, doubts, and scars still shaping people’s perspectives on both sides.
Anton Kobyakov, adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum that the USSR’s dissolution was legally invalid and that the Soviet Union still exists under constitutional law, framing the Ukraine war as an “internal process.”
Kyiv faced a large-scale Russian drone and missile assault overnight, with explosions and gunfire echoing throughout the city, forcing residents to shelter in subway stations.
A Florida judge has ruled that a mother’s lawsuit can proceed against AI startup Character.ai, following the suicide of her 14-year-old son who allegedly became addicted to the company’s chatbot app.
At Computex 2025 in Taipei, standout innovations included Acer's affordable smart ring, Asus's gamer-centric split keyboard, and MSI's AMD-powered Claw A8 handheld gaming device.
At its inaugural developer conference on Thursday, Anthropic unveiled two new AI models, Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, part of its next-generation Claude 4 family.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has confirmed that at least 69,461 customers had personal and financial information stolen in a months-long data breach, which the company disclosed last week.
Taiwan's Computex tech show brought together thousands of international participants on Tuesday, showcasing the highly advanced Artificial Intelligence and robotic systems.
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