Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Kocevski (Colby College) JWST uncovers hidden massive black holes veiled by cosmic dust in a groundbreaking new study Highlights Webb reveals dusty black holes that may link quasars and LRDs Hidden AGNs found by JWST could explain black hole growth Scientists find objects that may bridge the gap between LRDs and quasars Advertisement An obscured population of huge and massive black holes has been revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope. This discovery could bridge the gap between quasars and the Little Red Dots. These are active galactic nuclei galaxies (AGNs), overlapped or blurred by active blackholes, occupied by dust. Their bright nature makes them detectable in spite of the dust surrounding them. However, during December 2022, astronomers found a new type of AGN that they called Little Red Dots, because they appear as tiny, fat red spots.Connection of AGN with Quasars is Still a MysteryFor more than a decade, the study has been led by Dale Kocevski, an astronomer at Colby College. Their team includes scientists like Jorryt Matthee, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Science and Technology, who contributed to the understanding of little dots and their connection with quasars. Their connection is still a mystery that prompts them to find the objects with properties in between.The Old Universe Abundantly Occupied by Hidden QuasarsIn a new study Yoshiki Matsuoka, associate professor at the Research Center for Space, told Live Science, the scientists are surprised to find that the not-so-clear quasars had occupied a large portion of the early universe. Out of 13 galaxies, 9 were found to have clear signs of active supermassive blackholes in connection with the heavy dust that hides them.Findings Can Give Insights into the Study of Universe EvolutionJorryt Matthee, the head of the old research, said that although there are abundant new objects found in the universe, the gap between the two known populations found by JWST is too high, and thus, there is a possibility that these belong to that missing population lying in between the known ones, providing fresh insights into how these giants formed and evolved in the early universe. The findings were reported on May 7, 2025, in the preprint database arXiv.Future Study Scopes to Unveil the Nature of LRDThe team is planning to observe 30 more objects from the sample of the Subaru Telescope. This can reveal that the behaviour of the hidden quasars aligns with Little Red Dots. Furthermore, the gases that surround them can reveal the mysterious nature of LRD. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: JamesWebbSpaceTelescope, LittleRedDots, HiddenQuasars Gadgets 360 Staff The resident bot. If you email me, a human will respond. More

It’s no surprise that many big, left-leaning social media accounts have recently joined Bluesky — but a new analysis from the Pew Research Center attempts to quantify that shift. This comes as an update to Pew’s news influencer report released in November 2024, which did not include Bluesky in its numbers. The report focused on a relatively small group of 500 influencers, all of whom have more than 100,000 followers on at least one major platform and post regularly about current events. For this Bluesky-centric update, Pew looked at those same influencers (as opposed to accounts that may have found a big audience on Bluesky exclusively) and saw that in February/March, 43% of them had an account on Bluesky. Just over half (51%) of those accounts were created after the 2024 presidential election. There’s a big divide between influencers on the right and the left, with 69% of the left-leaning accounts (the ones that explicitly identified as liberals or Democrats and expressed support for Kamala Harris or Joe Biden before the presidential election) making the jump to Bluesky, while only 15% of the conservative ones did the same. This movement wasn’t necessarily at the expense of X (formerly Twitter). While X owner Elon Musk’s alliance with now-President Donald Trump seemed to drive new users to Bluesky, 82% of the influencers tracked by Pew still had an account on X, down only slightly from 85% in summer 2025. In other words, even if left-leaning influencers are dipping their toes into Bluesky, most of them (87%) haven’t abandoned X. Pew also says most influencers continue to post more regularly on X than on Bluesky. However, Bluesky activity does appear to be picking up — the number of influencers on Bluesky who are actually posting grew from 54% in the first week of January to 66% in the last full week of March. Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW

Photo Credit: Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology Ancient DNA from Yunnan Uncovers Ghost Lineage Linked to Tibetan Ancestry Highlights 7,100-year-old Xingyi_EN carries DNA from a mysterious ghost lineage Study links ancient Yunnan DNA to modern Tibetan ancestry Central Yunnan ancestry tied to early Austroasiatic populations Advertisement A new study on a 7,100-year-old skeleton from China has revealed a "ghost" lineage that only existed in theories until now. Skeleton of the early Neolithic woman, known as Xingyi_EN, unearthed at the Xingyi archaeological site in southwestern China's Yunnan province. Her DNA links her to a deeply divergent human population that may have contributed to the ancestry of modern Tibetans. This study also reveals a distinct Central Yunnan ancestry connected to early Austroasiatic-speaking groups. This discovery makes Yunnan as a key region to understand the ancient genetic history of East and Southeast Asia. The detailed analysis of 127 human genomes from southwestern China is published in a study in the journal Science.Xingyi_EN: A Genetic Link to a Mysterious PastAccording to the study, radiocarbon dating indicates Xingyi_EN lived around 7,100 years ago and isotope analysis suggests she lived as a hunter-gatherer. Genetic sequencing revealed her ancestry from a deeply diverged human lineage—now named the Basal Asian Xingyi lineage. This lineage diverged from other modern human groups over 40,000 years ago and remained isolated for thousands of years without mixing with other populations.This "ghost" lineage does not match DNA from Neanderthals or Denisovans but appears to have later contributed to the ancestry of some modern Tibetans. Xingyi_EN represents the first physical evidence of this previously unknown population.Yunnan's significance as a reservoir of deep human diversityMost of the skeletons that the researchers sampled were dated between 1,400 and 7,150 years ago and came from Yunnan province, which today has the highest ethnic and linguistic diversity in all of China."Ancient humans that lived in this region may be key to addressing several remaining questions on the prehistoric populations of East and Southeast Asia," the researchers wrote in the study. Those unanswered questions include the origins of people who live on the Tibetan Plateau, as previous studies have shown that Tibetans have northern East Asian ancestry. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: Ancient DNA, Yunnan, Ghost Lineage, Tibetan Ancestry, Human Evolution, Xingyi_EN, Paleogenetics, Archaeogenomics, Prehistoric Asia, Science Study Gadgets 360 Staff The resident bot. If you email me, a human will respond. More Related Stories

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More AI is advancing at a rapid clip for businesses, and that’s especially true of speech and voice AI models. Case in point: Today, ElevenLabs, the well-funded voice and AI sound effects startup founded by former Palantir engineers, debuted Conversational AI 2.0, a significant upgrade to its platform for building advanced voice agents for enterprise use cases, such as customer support, call centers, and outbound sales and marketing. This update introduces a host of new features designed to create more natural, intelligent, and secure interactions, making it well-suited for enterprise-level applications. The launch comes just four months after the debut of the original platform, reflecting ElevenLabs’ commitment to rapid development, and a day after rival voice AI startup Hume launched its own new, turn-based voice AI model, EVI 3. It also comes after new open source AI voice models hit the scene, prompting some AI influencers to declare ElevenLabs dead. It seems those declarations were, naturally, premature. According to Jozef Marko from ElevenLabs’ engineering team, Conversational AI 2.0 is substantially better than its predecessor, setting a new standard for voice-driven experiences. Enhancing naturalistic speech A key highlight of Conversational AI 2.0 is its state-of-the-art turn-taking model. This technology is designed to handle the nuances of human conversation, eliminating awkward pauses or interruptions that can occur in traditional voice systems. By analyzing conversational cues like hesitations and filler words in real-time, the agent can understand when to speak and when to listen. This feature is particularly relevant for applications such as customer service, where agents must balance quick responses with the natural rhythms of a conversation. Multilingual support Conversational AI 2.0 also introduces integrated language detection, enabling seamless multilingual discussions without the need for manual configuration. This capability ensures that the agent can recognize the language spoken by the user and respond accordingly within the same interaction. The feature caters to global enterprises seeking consistent service for diverse customer bases, removing language barriers and fostering more inclusive experiences. Enterprise-grade One of the more powerful additions is the built-in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system. This feature allows the AI to access external knowledge bases and retrieve relevant information instantly, while maintaining minimal latency and strong privacy protections. For example, in healthcare settings, this means a medical assistant agent can pull up treatment guidelines directly from an institution’s database without delay. In customer support, agents can access up-to-date product details from internal documentation to assist users more effectively. Multimodality and alternate personas In addition to these core features, ElevenLabs’ new platform supports multimodality, meaning agents can communicate via voice, text, or a combination of both. This flexibility reduces the engineering burden on developers, as agents only need to be defined once to operate across different communication channels. Further enhancing agent expressiveness, Conversational AI 2.0 allows multi-character mode, enabling a single agent to switch between different personas. This capability could be valuable in scenarios such as creative content development, training simulations, or customer engagement campaigns. Batch outbound calling For enterprises looking to automate large-scale outreach, the platform now supports batch calls.\ Organizations can initiate multiple outbound calls simultaneously using Conversational AI agents, an approach well-suited for surveys, alerts, and personalized messages. This feature aims to increase both reach and operational efficiency, offering a more scalable alternative to manual outbound efforts. Enterprise-grade standards and pricing plans Beyond the features that enhance communication and engagement, Conversational AI 2.0 places a strong emphasis on trust and compliance. The platform is fully HIPAA-compliant, a critical requirement for healthcare applications that demand strict privacy and data protection. It also supports optional EU data residency, aligning with data sovereignty requirements in Europe. ElevenLabs reinforces these compliance-focused features with enterprise-grade security and reliability. Designed for high availability and integration with third-party systems, Conversational AI 2.0 is positioned as a secure and dependable choice for businesses operating in sensitive or regulated environments. As far as pricing is concerned, here are the available subscription plans that include Conversational AI currently listed on ElevenLabs’ website: Free: $0/month, includes 15 minutes, 4 concurrency limit, requires attribution and no commercial licensing. Starter: $5/month, includes 50 minutes, 6 concurrency limit. Creator: $11/month (discounted from $22), includes 250 minutes, 6 concurrency limit, ~$0.12 per additional minute. Pro: $99/month, includes 1,100 minutes, 10 concurrency limit, ~$0.11 per additional minute. Scale: $330/month, includes 3,600 minutes, 20 concurrency limit, ~$0.10 per additional minute. Business: $1,320/month, includes 13,750 minutes, 30 concurrency limit, ~$0.096 per additional minute. A new chapter in realistic, naturalistic AI voice interactions As stated in the company’s video introducing the new release, “The potential of conversational AI has never been greater. The time to build is now.” With Conversational AI 2.0, ElevenLabs aims to provide the tools and infrastructure for enterprises to create truly intelligent, context-aware voice agents that elevate the standard of digital interactions. For those interested in learning more, ElevenLabs encourages developers and organizations to explore its documentation, visit the developer portal, or reach out to the sales team to see how Conversational AI 2.0 can enhance their customer experiences. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Photo Credit: Schmidt et al./NJIT/NSO/AURA/NSF New optics show coronal rain and strange plasma features in the sun’s outer atmosphere Highlights Ultr-detailed images reveal fine plasma structures in the sun’s corona Scientists observe a high-speed plasma ‘plasmoid’ racing across the sun Coronal rain threads seen in sharpest detail, just 12 miles in width Advertisement In a landmark achievement for solar astronomy, scientists have unveiled the most detailed view ever of the sun's corona — its superheated outer atmosphere — revealing bizarre, never-before-seen plasma features including delicate “raindrops” and a snaking, high-speed plasma stream. Captured using a cutting-edge adaptive optics system named Cona, installed at the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) in California, the new footage offers unmatched clarity of phenomena long obscured by Earth's turbulent atmosphere. The images, coloured to represent hydrogen-alpha light, show cooler plasma tracing the sun's magnetic fields in mesmerising loops and arcs.Sharpest Solar Views Yet Reveal Coronal Rain, Racing Plasmoid, and Twisting ProminencesAs per researchers at NJIT's Centre for Solar-Terrestrial Research, the adaptive optics allow the 1.6-metre telescope to reach its theoretical resolution limit of 63 kilometres. Among the findings is the sharpest view yet of coronal rain — narrow filaments of plasma falling back to the solar surface along magnetic field lines, some just 20 kilometres wide. Unlike Earth's rain, these plasma threads arc and loop in response to the sun's magnetism. Another striking discovery is the observation of a fast-moving ‘plasmoid' — a stream of plasma racing across the corona at nearly 100 kilometres per second.The footage also captured a rapidly reconfiguring solar prominence—plasma loops anchored to the sun's surface, twisting and dancing under magnetic tension. Scientists believe such observations could illuminate the mechanisms behind coronal mass ejections and solar flares, major drivers of space weather. Researchers note that the sun's surface appears soft and "fluffy" due to short-lived plasma jets called spicules, whose origins remain mysterious.The team's findings were published Tuesday, May 27, in the journal Nature.Study co-author Philip Goode mentioned that "This marks the beginning of a new era in solar astronomy." Researchers now hope to implement similar technology in larger instruments such as the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaiʻi.  For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: sun's corona, plasma stream, coronal rain, solar telescope, space weather, solar prominence Gadgets 360 Staff The resident bot. If you email me, a human will respond. More

DeepSeek's R1 update, plus the rest of the AI news this week. Credit: Thomas Fuller / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images This week, DeepSeek released an updated version of its R1 model on HuggingFace, reigniting the open-source versus closed-source competition. The updated version, called DeekSeek-R1-0528, has 685 billion parameters, an upgrade from January's version, which had 671 billion. Unlike OpenAI and Google's models, which are famously closed-source, DeepSeek's model weights are publicly available. According to the benchmarks, the R1-0528 update has improved reasoning and inference capabilities and is closing the gap with OpenAI's o3 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro. DeepSeek also introduced a distilled version of R1-0528 using Alibaba's Qwen3 8B model. This is an example of a lightweight model that is less capable but also requires less computing power. DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B outperforms both Google's latest lightweight model Gemini-2.5-Flash-Thinking-0520 and OpenAI's o3-mini in certain benchmarks. But the bigger deal is that DeekSeek's distilled model can reportedly run on a single GPU, according to TechCrunch. You May Also Like To… distill all this information, the Chinese rival is catching up to its U.S. competitors with an open-weight approach that's cheaper and more accessible. Plus, DeepSeek continues to prove that AI models may not require as much computing power as OpenAI, Google, and other AI heavyweights currently use. Suffice to say, watch this space.That said, DeepSeek's models also have their drawbacks. According to one AI developer (via TechCrunch), the new DeepSeek update is even more censored than its previous version when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government. Of course, a lot more happened in the AI world over the past few days. After last week's parade of AI events from Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft, this week was lighter on product and feature news. That's one reason DeepSeek's R1 update captured the AI world's attention this week. In other AI news, Anthropic finally gets voice mode, AI influencers go viral, Anthropic's CEO warns of mass layoffs, and an AI-generated kangaroo. Google's Veo 3 takes the internet by stormOn virtually every social media platform, users are freaking out about the new Veo 3, Google's new AI video model. The results are impressive, and we're already seeing short films made entirely with Veo 3. Not bad for a product that came out 11 days ago. Not to be outdone by AI video artists, a reporter from The Wall Street Journal made a short film about herself and a robot using Veo 3.Mashable's Tech Editor Timothy Werth recapped Veo's big week and had a simple conclusion: We're so cooked.More AI product news: Claude's new voice mode and the beginning of the agentic browser eraAfter last week's barrage, this week was lighter on the volume of AI news. But what was announced this week is no less significant.  Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Anthropic finally introduced its own voice mode for Claude to compete with ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini. The feature is currently in beta on mobile for the Claude app and will even be available to free plans with a limit of 20 to 30 voice conversations per day. Anthropic says you can ask Claude to summarize your calendar or read documents out loud. Paying subscribers can connect to Google Workspace for Calendar, Gmail, and Docs access. OpenAI is exploring the ability to sign into third-party apps with ChatGPT. We don't know much yet, but the company posted an interest form on its site for developers using Codex, its engineering agent, to add this capability to their own apps. It may not sound like a big deal, but it basically means users could easily link their personalized ChatGPT memories and settings to third-party apps, much like the way it works when you sign into a new app with your Google account.Opera announced a new agentic AI browser called Neon. "Much more than a place to view web pages, Neon can browse with you or for you, take action, and help you get things done," the announcement read. That includes a chatbot interface within the browser and the ability to fill in web forms for tasks like booking trips and shopping. The announcement, which included a promo video of a humanoid robot browsing the robot, which is scant on details but says Neon will be a "premium subscription product" and has a waitlist to sign up.The browser has suddenly become a new frontier for agentic AI, now that it's capable of automating web search tasks. Perplexity is working on a similar tool called Comet, and The Browser Company pivoted from its Arc browser to a more AI-centric browser called Dia. All of this is happening while Google might be forced to sell off Chrome, which OpenAI has kindly offered to take off its hands. Dario Amodei's prediction about AI replacing entry-level jobs is already starting to happenAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in an interview with Axios that AI could "wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs." Amodei's predictions might be spot on because a new study from VC firm SignalFire found that hiring for entry-level jobs is down to 7 percent from 25 percent in the previous year. Some of that is due to changes in the economic climate, but AI is definitely a factor since firms are opting to automate the less-technical aspects of work that would've been taken on by new hires.  Related Stories The latest in AI culture: That AI-generated kangaroo, Judge Judy, and everything elseGoogle wants you to know its AI overviews reach 1.5 billion people a month. They probably don't want you to know AI Overviews still struggles to count, spell, and know what year it is. As Mashable's Tim Marcin put it, would AI Overviews pass concussion protocol?The proposal of a 10-year ban on states regulating AI is pretty unpopular, according to a poll from Common Sense Media. The survey found that 57 percent of respondents opposed the moratorium, including half of the Republican respondents. As Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz reported, "the vast majority of respondents, regardless of their political affiliation, agreed that Congress shouldn't ban states from enacting or enforcing their own youth online safety and privacy laws."In the private sector, The New York Times signed a licensing deal with Amazon to allow their editorial content to be used for Amazon's AI models. The details are unclear, but from the outside, this seems like a change of tune from the Times, which is currently suing OpenAI for copyright infringement for allegedly using its content to train its models. That viral video of an emotional support kangaroo holding a plane ticket and being denied boarding? It's AI-generated, of course. Slightly more obvious, but no less creepy is another viral trend of using AI to turn public figures like Emmanuel Macron and Judge Judy into babies. These are strange AI-slop-infested times we're living in. AI has some positive uses too. This week, we learned about a new humanoid robot from HuggingFace called HopeJr (with engineering by The Robot Studio), which could be available for sale later this year for just $3,000.And to end this recap on a high note, the nonprofit Colossal Foundation has developed an AI algorithm to detect the bird calls of the near-extinct tooth-billed pigeon. Also known as the "little dodo," the tooth-billed pigeon is Samoa's national bird, and scientists are using the bioacoustic algorithm to locate and protect them. Want to get the latest AI news, from new product features to viral trends? Check back next week for another AI news recap, and in the meantime, follow @cecily_mauran and @mashable for more news.Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems. Topics OpenAI DeepSeek Cecily Mauran Tech Reporter Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More AI is advancing at a rapid clip for businesses, and that’s especially true of speech and voice AI models. Case in point: Today, ElevenLabs, the well-funded voice and AI sound effects startup founded by former Palantir engineers, debuted Conversational AI 2.0, a significant upgrade to its platform for building advanced voice agents for enterprise use cases, such as customer support, call centers, and outbound sales and marketing. This update introduces a host of new features designed to create more natural, intelligent, and secure interactions, making it well-suited for enterprise-level applications. The launch comes just four months after the debut of the original platform, reflecting ElevenLabs’ commitment to rapid development, and a day after rival voice AI startup Hume launched its own new, turn-based voice AI model, EVI 3. It also comes after new open source AI voice models hit the scene, prompting some AI influencers to declare ElevenLabs dead. It seems those declarations were, naturally, premature. According to Jozef Marko from ElevenLabs’ engineering team, Conversational AI 2.0 is substantially better than its predecessor, setting a new standard for voice-driven experiences. Enhancing naturalistic speech A key highlight of Conversational AI 2.0 is its state-of-the-art turn-taking model. This technology is designed to handle the nuances of human conversation, eliminating awkward pauses or interruptions that can occur in traditional voice systems. By analyzing conversational cues like hesitations and filler words in real-time, the agent can understand when to speak and when to listen. This feature is particularly relevant for applications such as customer service, where agents must balance quick responses with the natural rhythms of a conversation. Multilingual support Conversational AI 2.0 also introduces integrated language detection, enabling seamless multilingual discussions without the need for manual configuration. This capability ensures that the agent can recognize the language spoken by the user and respond accordingly within the same interaction. The feature caters to global enterprises seeking consistent service for diverse customer bases, removing language barriers and fostering more inclusive experiences. Enterprise-grade One of the more powerful additions is the built-in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system. This feature allows the AI to access external knowledge bases and retrieve relevant information instantly, while maintaining minimal latency and strong privacy protections. For example, in healthcare settings, this means a medical assistant agent can pull up treatment guidelines directly from an institution’s database without delay. In customer support, agents can access up-to-date product details from internal documentation to assist users more effectively. Multimodality and alternate personas In addition to these core features, ElevenLabs’ new platform supports multimodality, meaning agents can communicate via voice, text, or a combination of both. This flexibility reduces the engineering burden on developers, as agents only need to be defined once to operate across different communication channels. Further enhancing agent expressiveness, Conversational AI 2.0 allows multi-character mode, enabling a single agent to switch between different personas. This capability could be valuable in scenarios such as creative content development, training simulations, or customer engagement campaigns. Batch outbound calling For enterprises looking to automate large-scale outreach, the platform now supports batch calls.\ Organizations can initiate multiple outbound calls simultaneously using Conversational AI agents, an approach well-suited for surveys, alerts, and personalized messages. This feature aims to increase both reach and operational efficiency, offering a more scalable alternative to manual outbound efforts. Enterprise-grade standards and pricing plans Beyond the features that enhance communication and engagement, Conversational AI 2.0 places a strong emphasis on trust and compliance. The platform is fully HIPAA-compliant, a critical requirement for healthcare applications that demand strict privacy and data protection. It also supports optional EU data residency, aligning with data sovereignty requirements in Europe. ElevenLabs reinforces these compliance-focused features with enterprise-grade security and reliability. Designed for high availability and integration with third-party systems, Conversational AI 2.0 is positioned as a secure and dependable choice for businesses operating in sensitive or regulated environments. As far as pricing is concerned, here are the available subscription plans that include Conversational AI currently listed on ElevenLabs’ website: Free: $0/month, includes 15 minutes, 4 concurrency limit, requires attribution and no commercial licensing. Starter: $5/month, includes 50 minutes, 6 concurrency limit. Creator: $11/month (discounted from $22), includes 250 minutes, 6 concurrency limit, ~$0.12 per additional minute. Pro: $99/month, includes 1,100 minutes, 10 concurrency limit, ~$0.11 per additional minute. Scale: $330/month, includes 3,600 minutes, 20 concurrency limit, ~$0.10 per additional minute. Business: $1,320/month, includes 13,750 minutes, 30 concurrency limit, ~$0.096 per additional minute. A new chapter in realistic, naturalistic AI voice interactions As stated in the company’s video introducing the new release, “The potential of conversational AI has never been greater. The time to build is now.” With Conversational AI 2.0, ElevenLabs aims to provide the tools and infrastructure for enterprises to create truly intelligent, context-aware voice agents that elevate the standard of digital interactions. For those interested in learning more, ElevenLabs encourages developers and organizations to explore its documentation, visit the developer portal, or reach out to the sales team to see how Conversational AI 2.0 can enhance their customer experiences. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.