AssemblyAI has introduced Universal-1, a new speech model that sets a standard for automated speech recognition (ASR) accuracy. The model is designed to transcribe accented speech, background noise, and difficult phrases with near-human accuracy. It can be accessed through the same web API as previous ASR models. Alongside this release, two new pricing tiers have been introduced: Best and Nano. A tutorial demonstrates how to use Python applications to transcribe audio or video files using Universal-1's Best and Nano tiers with AssemblyAI's Speech-to-Text API. The tutorial also explains how to switch between the Best and Nano tiers by adjusting the TranscriptionConfig parameters.