Developers can now build fully functional AI-powered voice agents with the OpenAI API, the company announced this week.
This major update includes new text-to-speech and speech-to-text models to support seamless integration of voice capabilities into apps.
The keynote highlight is an updated text-to-speech engine with better “steerability,” or having developers instruct the AI to respond in specific styles or tones.
For example, you can design your app “to sound like a helpful customer support person” or more forceful for a particular application.
OpenAI is also inviting developers to explore a text-to-speech demo, encouraging them to share their creations on X via @OpenAIDevs for a chance to win prizes.
The new voice models are powered by GPT-4o and GPT-4o-mini, offering improved performance and cost-efficiency compared to previous solutions like Whisper and OpenAI’s earlier TTS systems.
In an effort to make development even easier, OpenAI released a new Agents SDK that enables developers to easily convert their existing text-based agents into voice agents in a few lines of code.
âš¡ TanStack Start Teams Up with Netlify for Simple Deployment
That’s not all, as in further significant news, TanStack Start, a full-stack React framework that’s built on TanStack Router, has teamed up with Netlify for simple deployment.
TanStack creator Tanner Linsley described how Netlify’s focus on speed, modularity, and developer tooling is exactly TanStack Start’s vision.
Benefits of the integration include:
- No-config seconds deploy
- Serverless feature support with Netlify Functions
- Global edge network for performance optimization at scale
Netlify also launched a full-stack AI-powered chatbot starter template to showcase how TanStack Start integrates with its infrastructure.
Developers can expect further innovation, greater integration, and a live TanStack Start demo session in the Remote Desk series of Netlify on March 31.
???? Node.js Community Launches Official Discord Server
The Node.js team in association with the OpenJS Foundation and Reactiflux has launched an official Discord server to help developers connect and collaborate.
Although unofficial communities have existed in the past, this is the first official real-time Node.js developer community offering support, networking, and discussion for server-side applications as well as APIs and microservices.
???? Bun Increases Node-API Compatibility
The Bun runtime is still under development. In v1.2.5, Bun now supports better Node-API compatibility, allowing developers to easily execute native add-ons and shared libraries with other languages like C, C++, Rust, and Zig.
Developing Jarred Sumner announced Bun now passes 98% of Node.js’s js-native-api test suite, a giant leap towards interoperability. The upgrade also includes 75 bug fixes and 162 improvements, securing Bun’s reputation as a swift, modern rival to Node.js.
???? Bots in Games: Gamers Claim AI Is Spoliling Fun
A recent poll by Echelon Insights finds that 59% of players frequently find themselves facing unauthorized bots while playing, with 74% reporting that bots are ruining games and 71% asserting they’re destroying fair play.
Surprisingly, 18% of players reported they’ve abandoned a game entirely because of bot frustration.
The research was commissioned by Sam Altman’s World Network, which has now partnered with Razer to promote a more human way of gaming. They’re introducing Razer ID Verified by World ID — a secure, single sign-on platform to help distinguish genuine players from bots.
