AssemblyAI has introduced Universal-1, a state-of-the-art speech recognition model that achieves near-human accuracy in speech-to-text transcription. Trained on millions of hours of audio data, it supports English, Spanish, French, and German, with more languages to be added soon. The company also launched two new classes of models: Best for applications where accuracy is paramount, and Nano as a cost-effective alternative supporting 99 different languages. Users can transcribe audio files in their Java applications using the AssemblyAI Java SDK.