The Audio Layer: Voice agents in the real world (hosted by ai-coustics)
Voice is becoming one of the most powerful ways we interact with AI.
Real-time agents and synthetic voices only work when they’re built to withstand the noise, variability, and unpredictability of real-world environments — not just the safety of controlled tests.
That’s why on December 10 we’re hosting The Audio Layer, an intimate gathering for people shaping the future of Voice AI. Together, we’ll explore how the audio foundation of modern agents is evolving, and what it takes to make voice systems reliable, observable and resilient when the world behaves unpredictably, and how these advances will define the next wave of Voice AI innovation in 2026.
We’re joined by a panel of leaders working across the stack:
David Zhao, Co-Founder of LiveKit brings deep expertise in low-latency realtime infrastructure, powering the next generation of voice and multimodal agents used in production today.
Brooke Hopkins, Founder of Coval leads the development of cutting-edge evaluation and observability tooling, helping teams measure and improve the real-world reliability of AI agents.
Atila Orhon, Founder of Argmax building the on-device ASR developer platform for real-time speech-to-text and speaker diarization, enabling developers and enterprises to deploy frontier open-source and proprietary models on the edge.
Fabian Seipel, Co-Founder of ai-coustics is developing the audio-robustness layer that enables voice systems to perform consistently in unpredictable, real-world acoustic conditions.
What to expect
A focused conversation across the Voice AI stack, covering the advances pushing the field forward — plus an end-of-year chance to connect over pizza and beer.
Open to anyone working in Voice AI, from real-time audio engineers and agent builders to infrastructure and research teams.
Space is limited — RSVP early.
We look forward to seeing you there!
This event is hosted at the Frontier Tower:
We are transforming a 16-floor tower in San Francisco into a self-governed vertical village—a hub for frontier technologies and creative arts.
Apply here for founding citizenship: https://frontiertower.io/apply
Why should I become a citizen?
Be part of creating the first self-governed vertical village
Connect with the most creative people in the city
Get access to all floors, free event space & movement floor
Website: https://frontiertower.io/
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