Block's new AI model Dessa was trained entirely on human speech to catch emotions text-based models miss View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian Oct 24, 2026 Block, the company behind Square and Cash App, has unveiled an AI speech model called Dessa. Block says Dessa is the first AI model trained entirely on human speech, with no text data at all, built from scratch. Instead of converting audio to text first, Dessa processes speech directly as audio.