Bland releases Tofu-1 speech-to-speech model
MarkTechPost: Bland Launches Tofu-1, a Full-Duplex Speech-to-Speech Model for Calls
Bland, the San Francisco voice-AI company, has released Tofu-1, a full-duplex speech-to-speech model in research preview. The Tofu-1 speech-to-speech model targets calls from moving cars, hospital rooms and weak-signal lines. It listens while it speaks and reasons while it talks. For phone-agent teams, one model now handles audio in and audio out, with no transcript between. You can check the deployment options and specs here through our GPULeaderboard.com chrome extension. What is Tofu-1?
Bland has released Tofu-1, a full-duplex speech-to-speech model that processes audio directly during phone calls rather than converting speech to text and back. Unlike traditional voice agents that transcribe speech, pass it to a language model, then synthesize audio, Tofu-1 preserves tone, hesitation, and background sound while listening and responding simultaneously. The model is designed to handle challenging audio environments such as moving cars, hospital rooms, and weak-signal lines, with capabilities including speaker tracking, noise separation, and detection of emotional cues like frustration and urgency. Access is currently limited to enterprise research preview for banking, healthcare, insurance, and government sectors.
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