Microsoft builds its own foundation model

PLUS: OpenAI's realtime voice API and Alibaba's Nvidia challenger

Author

Jelani Abdus-Salaam
August 29, 2025

In partnership with

Welcome back, AI’ers!

Here’s What’s On The Menu For Today

  • OpenAI launches its realtime voice API

  • Alibaba develops an Nvidia challenger chip

  • An AI-powered voice coaching app raises $3.6M

  • New voice AI can process visual information

AI ON MY MIND

Happy Friday,

OpenAI has just launched its advanced speech-to-speech model and Realtime API. This release makes it significantly more accessible for developers to build highly responsive and natural-sounding voice agents for their applications.

The new model goes beyond simple audio by processing visual information and detecting nonverbal cues during conversations. How will this more human-like interaction change the landscape of voice-integrated tools, from personal assistants to customer support bots?

By the way, I've been getting questions about how AI works in practice, so I'm launching a separate newsletter that dives deeper into real business applications and practical advice. [Click here if you're interested].

-Jelani Fuel (Co-founder of Best of AI)

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TODAY’S TOP STORIES

OpenAI's Realtime Voice Takes Center Stage

The Recap: OpenAI has officially launched its advanced gpt-realtime speech-to-speech model and Realtime API, enabling developers to build highly responsive and natural-sounding voice agents.

Unpacked:

  • The new model achieves 82.8% accuracy on audio reasoning benchmarks, a significant improvement over the 65.6% score from its predecessor.

  • It enables more human-like conversations by detecting nonverbal cues, switching languages seamlessly, and can even process visual information like photos or screenshots during a conversation.

  • New developer tools and integrations make it easier to build applications, with builders already creating things like open-source custom hardware agents.

Bottom line: This release makes building high-quality, low-latency voice AI significantly more accessible for developers. Expect to see a surge of more natural and capable voice agents integrated into customer support, personal assistants, and other applications.

Alibaba's Chip Ambitions

The Recap: Alibaba is developing a new, versatile AI chip manufactured in China, a strategic move designed to navigate U.S. export restrictions and reduce its reliance on foreign technology from companies like Nvidia.

Unpacked:

  • This new processor is manufactured domestically, a significant shift from Alibaba's previous reliance on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) for its AI hardware.

  • The development is a direct response to U.S. export controls that have limited Chinese companies' access to top-tier Nvidia AI processors, spurring demand for homegrown alternatives.

  • As China's largest cloud provider, this custom silicon initiative supports Alibaba's core business, which recently saw a 26% jump in quarterly cloud revenue.

Bottom line: This move highlights a broader push for technological independence within China's AI ecosystem. Expect to see more domestic hardware emerge as companies adapt to geopolitical pressures and work to secure their supply chains.

MY FAVORITE AI TOOLS

Relevance is my favorite AI tool right now (even more so than N8N).

Here’s why:

It’s an AI agent building tool that doesn’t require you to build out the logic using nodes. Instead, you use natural language to build out these agents. But the best thing imo is that you can build AI Agent teams.

Like agents talking to each other completing a goal until its done. It’s nuts. No other tool on the market is doing this. You have to check it out.

(Try it out →Link)

👾 AI Tools We Use Everyday

➡️ N8N for AI Agents - Literally use this everyday to write this newsletter (link)

➡️ Axiom AI - AI Browser automation to scrape anything on the web (link)

➡️ GummySearch - AI Reddit research (link)

Tools are sourced from our database and are not sponsored or affiliated.

MORE STORIES

AI Coaching Goes Vocal

The Recap: Estonian startup Vocal Image raised $3.6 million for its AI-powered voice coaching app, which helps users improve their communication skills through personalized exercises and feedback.

Unpacked:

  • The company reports impressive growth, now at $12 million in annual recurring revenue with 4 million downloads and 50,000 paid users.

  • Vocal Image is building a significant data advantage by collecting over 1 million real-voice samples, which are labeled by its community to train and refine its AI models.

  • The startup was recently named a winner in the European AI Startup Program, gaining backing from industry giants like Meta and Hugging Face.

Bottom line: This shows how AI is moving into personalized soft-skill development, an area once reserved for human coaching. The app's success demonstrates a strong market demand for accessible and private tools to improve professional communication.

OTHER NEWS YOU MAY LIKE

Microsoft AI launches its first in-house models

xAI released Grok Code Fast 1, a new model designed for Python, Java, and C++ that offers low costs for agentic coding tasks.

Anthropic updated its terms to use customer chats to train its models, requiring users to actively opt-out through their privacy settings.

Sphere reimagined "The Wizard of Oz" as an immersive experience, using "ethical AI" to enhance the 1939 classic for its 16K screen and add 4D effects.

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THAT’S IT FOR TODAY

Until next time, stay safe.

-Best of AI Team

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