A model trained only on speech
Dessa listens to the way something is said, not just what was typed. That single decision — speech first, text second — is the reason Humenra is a voice product and not another chat box.
Partnership · Block
The voice came
from Dessa.
Humenra is built in partnership with Block's Dessa — a conversation model trained only on speech. When a model is designed to listen rather than answer, it changes what a wellbeing product can be. That is where this project started.
Dessatrained only on speech
Partnership Block · Dessa
Thank you
This project began
with their belief.
Recorded here, in public, because a partnership that only appears in a footer is not worth much.
Thank you to the team at Block. Dessa gave Humenra its first voice, its first working build and, honestly, the confidence that a product could put a person before a prompt.
What you built made the hard part obvious: the pause is the data, and listening is not the same as answering. Everything on this site follows from that.
— The Humenra team
The first recorded conversation
The 4:57 session published on this site exists because of this collaboration. Pauses, hesitation, the moment someone is heard before being answered.
The support to begin
Humenra started with Block's contribution to the build fund. No institutional round, no pitch deck — a partner who believed the question was worth asking.
The partnership
Speech first,
always.
Humenra's voice work, the calibration instrument and the research behind it are shaped by this partnership. Dessa is a conversation model trained only on speech — you can read what that means, and hear it, on their page.
block.xyz/dessaPartnerBlock — the company behind Dessa, the conversation model trained only on speech.
What it gave usThe first voice, the first working build, and the first contribution to the fund.
Where it showsThe recorded session on the voice page, and the speech-first thinking across this site.