Hear First, Commit Later: Voice-Light's Turn-Taking Tradeoff
TL;DR for operators A conversational voice assistant must decide when to respond, when to stop speaking, and which parts of its generated response actually reached the user. These decisions have different costs and should not depend on a single turn-taking prediction. Voice-Light demonstrates a hybrid architecture that separates uncertain evidence from consequential actions. Acoustic onset can trigger reversible playback ducking, while stronger evidence governs interruption and cancellation. Language and speech generation can begin privately before the user’s turn is confirmed complete, and only browser-acknowledged playback enters durable conversation history. ...