Startup Underdog has released a new text-to-speech model named Woof. The model is 31.7 MB in size and is designed to run locally on edge devices without an internet connection. The company demonstrated the technology through a browser-based game where users can input text to be spoken by the AI.
The Woof model contains 31 million parameters and is available for public download. This release follows the launch of Bark, a 167 MB speech-to-text model from Underdog intended for transcription and dictation tasks on personal devices.
Founder Sigil Wen stated that the company aims to develop open, American-made models that allow users to maintain data privacy. Underdog is also working on a 27-billion-parameter model capable of running on laptops and a locally-hosted application currently available via a waitlist.
