Latest news with #plantbasedmeat
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Voice-To-Voice Models And Beyond Meat: Still Not Ready For Mass Consumption
Arkadiy Telegin is the cofounder and CTO of Leaping AI, a conversational AI platform supporting customer experience departments worldwide. I'm vegan. So when plant-based meat started going mainstream, I was elated. The tech was impressive, the marketing confident and, for a moment, it felt like we were on the cusp of a food revolution. Impossible Burgers hit Burger King. Beyond was everywhere. Investors poured in. The future, it seemed, had arrived. Except it hadn't. Today, plant-based meat is still a niche. Prices are high, availability is inconsistent and adoption is slower than expected. It's not that the products disappeared. They just haven't yet integrated into everyday life the way we imagined. This is a classic case of psychological distance: a cognitive bias where things that feel close because they're exciting or well-promoted turn out to be farther off than we think. In voice AI, voice-to-voice model development is going through the same thing. Despite recent latency, reasoning and sound quality improvements, there's been a stubborn insistence on using older, more established technologies to build conversational AI platforms. Why is that? After LLMs appeared, the first commercial voice AI applications all used a 'cascading' approach following a three-step sequence: • Speech-To-Text (STT): Transcribe the user's speech to text. • Large Language Model (LLM): Use an LLM to respond to the transcribed user's speech. • Text-To-Speech (TTS): Synthesize speech from your response and play it back. This is a standard, time-tested approach that's been in use even before LLMs came around, primarily for language translation. Then, last fall, OpenAI launched its Realtime API, which promised a one-step speech-to-speech AI model capable of parsing audio directly to generate real-time responses, resulting in agents that sound much more human, can natively detect emotions and can be more 'tone aware.' OpenAI's entry into the space was the most commercially significant development yet, leading many to anticipate a new era for single-step voice-to-voice AI models that could feasibly be used in real-world applications. Over six months later, while Realtime API's launch has created a lot of excitement around direct speech-to-speech AI models—the recently announced Nova Sonic model from Amazon and Sesame's base model for its Maya assistant are just a few examples—when it comes to production-level applications, my industry colleagues and customers alike are still more comfortable using the status quo of multi-step pipelines, with no plans to change that any time soon. There are a few key reasons why that is the case. Working with audio presents inherent difficulties. Text is clean, modular and easily manipulated. It allows for storage, searchability and mid-call edits. Audio, in contrast, is less forgiving. Even post-call tasks like analysis and summarization often necessitate transcription. In-call operations, such as managing state or editing messages, are more cumbersome with audio. Function calling is crucial in production use-cases—fetching data, triggering workflows, querying APIs. Currently, one-step voice-to-voice models lag in this area. Stanford computer science professor and founder Andrew Ng, who also cofounded the Google Brain project, has publicly shared some of these limitations. It is much easier to create and curate a good function-calling dataset for a text-based model than for a multimodal model. As a result of this, the function-calling capabilities of text-first models will always outperform those of voice-to-voice models. Considering that function calling is not perfect even for text models yet and is a crucial requirement for commercial applications, it will take some time until voice-to-voice catches up to meet production standards. Ng shares the example of gut-checking responses like "Yes, I can issue you a refund" to ensure refunds are allowable against the current company policy and how an API can be called to issue that refund if the customer requests one. That's more doable to build in a cascading workflow but not as reliable for one-step pipelines for the reasons stated above. Since OpenAI launched its Realtime API, there have been a number of complaints that have made developers uneasy about using it in production, including audio cutting off unexpectedly and hallucinations interrupting live conversations. Others have complained of hallucinations that don't get captured in the transcript, making it challenging to catch and debug them. This isn't to say one-step voice-to-voice AI is a dead end. Far from it. The potential for enhanced user experience—handling interruptions, conveying emotion, capturing tone—is immense. Many in the industry, our team included, are actively experimenting, preparing for the moment when it matures. Startups and major players alike continue to invest in speech-native approaches as they anticipate a more emotionally resonant, real-time future. In other words: It's a matter of when, not if. In the meantime, multi-step pipelines for voice-to-voice AI models continue to win on reliability and production-readiness. With steady improvements, particularly in behavior and function calling, the moment for single-step models will come. Until then, the trusted cascading approach will carry the load, and I'm still not eating at Burger King. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Wall Street Journal
10-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
As Alternative Meats Lose Favor, Impossible Foods Sets Its Sights on Flexitarians
Impossible Foods faces an unsavory conundrum: How can a major maker of plant-based meat succeed in a shrinking industry? Chief Executive Peter McGuinness is taking steps to tackle that challenge, including a new brand identity that stresses the meatiness of the company's products and a plan to woo 'flexitarians'—people whose diets only occasionally include meat. Among recent changes, the Redwood City, Calif., company switched packaging colors from green to blood red, hired a hot-dog eating champion as a brand ambassador and expanded product offerings once focused on ground-beef substitutes to steak bites, hot dogs and chicken tenders.
CNA
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
Gaia Series 85: Ramen/Meat...Compete With Taste!
Watch how Japanese innovation is transforming plant-based meat into a sustainable, flavourful future food solution. In a country renowned for culinary precision and devotion to umami, a quiet food revolution is taking root. This week's Japan Hour explores how Japanese ingenuity is driving the development of alternative meat; from sorghum-based gyoza in Tokushima to maitake mushroom 'meat' in Niigata, and a pork broth-style vegan ramen crafted for global tourists in snowy Hakuba. The episode begins in a bustling yakiniku restaurant in Tokushima City, where the sizzling allure of Awaji beef is rivalled by an unlikely contender: The 'Supermeat' range of meatless dishes. Their deep-fried gyoza and bibimbap topped with a hamburg steak are entirely plant-based, made using locally grown sorghum instead of animal products. 'At our restaurant, the hamburg and gyoza of the 'Supermeat' series contain no meat,' a staff member explains. The response? Overwhelming surprise. 'What!? This isn't meat? It tastes just like meat,' says one diner. Even the children prefer it. 'If no one told you, you'd think it's real meat,' another customer adds. Despite this promising feedback, plant-based food still battles perceptions in Japan. 'When I hear 'alternative meat', it just bothers me. I've never eaten it before. I won't eat it,' says one man bluntly, I just want to eat regular meat.' His sentiment reflects a wider challenge: while global trends show that by 2050, half of all meat is expected to be plant-based, Japan's domestic market has plateaued. The reasons, as the programme lays out, are straightforward: Price and taste. Determined to reshape that narrative is Mr Masaharu Kato, R&D manager at Yukiguni Maitake in Niigata. His company, with over 50 per cent of Japan's maitake mushroom market share, embarked on a two-year journey to turn their mushrooms into an alternative meat. 'If we could turn them into food products, people might eat them all year round,' Mr Kato explains. 'I believed there was more potential to explore, and I communicated that to senior management.' However, developing maitake meat proved technically complex. Initial attempts crumbled under pressure. Literally. 'It's very soft. It doesn't feel like it's cooked,' a tester observes. The culprit? An enzyme in the mushroom that breaks down protein, causing structural failure. 'The enjoyment of meat, after all, is in the chewiness, the flavour and the texture. This has none of that, so I'd say it's hardly like meat at all,' one participant admits. But Mr Kato's persistence paid off. By steaming the mushrooms at over 90°C using proprietary technology, they neutralised the enzyme and dramatically improved texture. 'The unsteamed version just melted away, but this one retains a proper texture,' a team member confirms. Instrument testing showed chewiness levels 'close to actual meat'. Visibly delighted, the typically reserved Mr Kato is seen smiling: 'It's impressive. A great result.' Still, taste alone doesn't guarantee success. 'Great taste doesn't always translate to strong sales,' remarks Sales Director Mr Shinji Morosawa. He points out a logistical problem: Alternative meat is often shelved in the dried goods section, away from fresh produce, where most shoppers roam. 'How it's sold is extremely important'. This feedback prompted a rethink. Mr Kato pivoted toward a ready-made, vegetable-pairing product — 'a sauce you can chew on' — suitable for produce sections. After more trial and error, three retort pouch flavours were developed: tomato, sesame dan dan, and ajillo. At an in-house tasting, reactions were positive. 'Tastes great,' says one participant, while the company president sees bigger possibilities: 'By replacing meat with mushroom-based alternative meat, the range of cooking possibilities can significantly expand.' Their product, branded as 'Mushroom Meat', launched in January 2025 in a Tokyo trial. Sales on the day were four times the target with official national rollout slated for February. Meanwhile, in Hakuba Village, Nagano, one of the world's top ski destinations, the challenge was different. With inbound tourists increasingly avoiding meat and fish, the local tourism board enlisted Mr Toshiyuki Fukushima from Fuji Oil to develop a suitable menu. His team had previously crafted Kyoto's acclaimed soy-based 'chicken skewer', and now they were aiming higher: Pork broth-style ramen made entirely from plants. Inspired by the birth of his child and Japan's declining catch of bonito and sardines, Mr Fukushima made it his mission to help future generations. 'It made me realise that we don't know what will happen in the future,' he reflects. 'The idea of passing things on to the next generation felt incredibly meaningful.' Initial versions of the ramen lacked aroma, an essential sensory hook. 'What's missing is probably the aroma,' noted chef Takeshi Abe, a Hakuba local with international experience. The breakthrough came in the form of kuromoji, a fragrant mountain herb. 'When you pour boiling water over it, the aroma is released,' Mr Abe explains. 'That's amazing!' Mr Fukushima responds. 'It's a go.' To mimic pork back fat, the team turned to freeze-dried tofu, sliced and fried. 'It does look like it. Visually, at least,' says Mr Abe, though they admitted the texture needed more work. Nonetheless, after four months of effort, the final product, ramen with wheat gluten char siu, kuromoji-scented broth and mushroom-based mince, debuted at a local event. 'It really does taste like pork broth,' a resident comments. 'There's even some minced 'meat'.' When told it was freeze-dried tofu, the reaction was: 'No way! It resembles pork back fat.' Later, at Hakuba's ski resort, foreign tourists echo the sentiment. 'Tastes great,' one says. 'It's great Japanese food.' Another adds, 'Coming all the way from New Zealand, it's good to have this.' Mr Fukushima, watching from the sidelines, summarises his vision: 'We want everyone to say, 'Yeah, this tastes great,' and if it just so happens to be plant-based, then people of all kinds can sit around the same table and eat together.' In both rural kitchens and corporate labs, Japanese innovators are reimagining meat — not as a lesser substitute, but as a standalone culinary experience. Whether from mushrooms or soy, this is no longer just 'alternative' meat. It is food for the future, rooted in tradition, driven by technology and designed to bring everyone to the table.
