live Iran sends response to U.S. war proposal via Pakistan - Middle East conflict on 10 May
Iran has sent its response to a U.S. proposal aimed at ending the war through mediator Pakistan, according to IRNA, as Qatar’s Prime Minister...
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.
Efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war appeared to stall as the two sides exchanged fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz. A reported CIA assessment suggested Tehran could withstand a U.S. naval blockade for months despite mounting sanctions and renewed Gulf attacks.
British paratroopers and military medics have been deployed to Tristan da Cunha after a suspected hantavirus case was confirmed, as first evacuation flights carrying passengers from the stricken MV Hondius cruise ship left Tenerife for Madrid and Paris.
Russia is holding a significantly scaled-back Victory Day parade in Moscow on 9 May 2026, reflecting heightened security concerns and the ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
Indonesian rescue teams have located two Singaporeans who went missing after Mount Dukono erupted on Friday (8 May) on the island of Halmahera, though authorities say it remains unclear whether they are alive.
The U.S. Defense Department has released dozens of previously classified files on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on Friday (8 May), following an order from President Donald Trump. U.S. officials described as a push for “unprecedented transparency”.
A robotics startup says it has built an AI “brain” that can teach humanoid robots new physical skills in days rather than months, as the race to deploy human-shaped machines in factories and warehouses accelerates.
Apple and Meta have publicly opposed a Canadian bill they say could force technology companies to weaken encryption on devices and online services if it becomes law.
European Union countries and European Parliament lawmakers have agreed on a softened version of the bloc’s landmark artificial intelligence rules, including delayed implementation, in a move critics say reflects growing concessions to major technology firms.
Almaty is hosting GITEX AI Kazakhstan 2026 two-day event, drawing global tech firms and investors as Central Asia gains attention as a fast developing digital market. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev visited the GITEX AI Central Asia & Caucasus exhibition in Almaty on 4 May.
A humanoid robot called Sophia took an unusual place at the heart of a classical concert in Hong Kong on Wednesday (29 April), as she performed alongside a live orchestra for the first time.
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