Willow Care, the company behind Willow Voice, chose CoreWeave for reinforcement-learning infrastructure and forward-deployed support, according to a SiliconANGLE report published October 8, 2026. Willow says the arrangement lets its team focus on evaluating and aligning its speech system rather than managing the underlying infrastructure. The report does not publish Willow-specific performance results.
How Willow Voice turns speech into formatted text
Willow Voice combines speech recognition with a small language model that post-processes the recognized speech into written text. Willow co-founder and CTO Lawrence Liu described that second model as a way to format input in the form the user would have written it. The account is from Liu’s interview with theCUBE at CoreWeave’s Fully Connected event, as reported by SiliconANGLE.
![Claude AI for Beginners Bible: [5 in 1] The Ultimate Guide to Automate Your Work, Save Hours Every Week, and Use AI for Real-World Results](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415+fSJacsL._SL160_.jpg)
That distinction matters: the reported system is not simply transcribing words. It first recognizes speech and then uses a language model to shape the result as text. Liu called the small model part of Willow’s “secret sauce,” but the article does not give its name, size, or technical details.
What Willow is training on
SiliconANGLE reports that Willow is fine-tuning its speech-recognition model on quiet, real-world audio. Liu offered the example of someone whispering in a coffee shop. That example suggests the team is addressing low-volume speech in everyday surroundings; it is not a full account of Willow’s training data or data practices.
#1 Best Overall
The report does not disclose the quantity or composition of the audio, the evaluation protocol, or how Willow measures improvements. It therefore does not establish a particular accuracy level or show that the approach outperforms another model.
Why Willow selected CoreWeave
Willow says it chose CoreWeave for reinforcement-learning infrastructure and forward-deployed support. Liu said that CoreWeave’s infrastructure means Willow does not have to manage what is “under the hood,” leaving the team to focus on evaluation alignment.
Rank #2
- Built for Local AI Development: AMD Ryzen AI Halo is designed for local AI development and inference, featuring 128GB unified memory and support for up to 200B parameter models to build and run intensive AI workloads locally.
- 128GB Unified Memory: Features 128GB LPDDR5x unified memory at 8000 MT/s with 256 GB/s memory bandwidth, providing a shared memory pool across the CPU, GPU, and NPU to support larger AI models.
- AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Processor: Features 16 cores, 32 threads, and Zen 5 architecture, paired with AMD Radeon 8060S integrated graphics featuring 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units and an AMD XDNA 2 NPU with up to 50 TOPS.
- Linux AI Developer Platform: Purpose-built for Linux-based AI development with full AMD ROCm software support and preloaded tools, models, and workflows optimized for local AI development.
- Compact, Connected Design: Includes a 2TB M.2 SSD, 10GbE LAN, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, USB-C connectivity, and HDMI 2.1b.
That is Willow’s stated reason for the choice, not a head-to-head comparison of cloud providers. The report does not specify Willow’s CoreWeave configuration, contract terms, pricing, or workload scale, and it does not show that CoreWeave is faster or cheaper for Willow.
Training and inference demand
Liu described Willow’s work as mostly training at present, while saying inference demand is growing faster as people use dictation more. This is his account of the company’s workload, not a published usage dataset. The article gives no figures for requests, users, compute consumption, latency, or the rate of that growth.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
Rank #3
- FAST RUNS IN THE FAMILY — The 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro or M5 Max chip brings next-generation speed and powerful on-device AI to personal, professional, and creative tasks. With all-day battery life, double the starting storage,* and a breathtaking Liquid Retina XDR display, it’s pro in every way.*
- BUCKLE UP — Along with a next-generation CPU, faster unified memory, and up to 2x faster SSD storage,* M5 Pro and M5 Max feature a more powerful GPU with a Neural Accelerator built into each core, delivering faster AI performance and on-device training capabilities. So you can blaze through demanding workloads at mind-bending speeds.
- BUILT FOR AI — Apple silicon, and every major component that powers it, is designed to run demanding on-device AI workloads like LLM inference and training. And Apple Intelligence helps you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly with groundbreaking privacy protections at every step.*
- ALL-DAY BATTERY LIFE — MacBook Pro delivers the same exceptional performance whether it’s running on battery or plugged in.*
- MACOS RUNS APPS FAST — All your go-to apps run lightning fast in macOS, including built-in apps like FaceTime and Messages. Plus, built-in virus protection and free software updates help keep your Mac running smoothly and securely.
What the report does—and does not—show
The SiliconANGLE account documents Willow’s reported infrastructure choice and product approach, but it is not an independently audited technical case study. It provides no Willow-specific measured accuracy, latency, cost, model size, or before-and-after result. It also does not establish privacy or security properties.
CoreWeave separately said in an October 8, 2025 announcement that its Serverless RL offering achieved nearly 1.4× faster training and 40% lower costs, with no impact on model quality, compared with local H100 GPU environments. Those are CoreWeave’s own benchmark claims about that offering—not Willow results or an independent comparison. Details are in CoreWeave’s announcement.
Rank #4
- EVOLUTION AMD RYZEN AI MAX+ 395 MINI PC - GMKtec EVO-X2 is the next evolution in AI mini PC Ryzen Strix Halo series. Thanks to AMD Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) the core-count is effectively doubled, to 32 threads. Ryzen AI Max+ 395 has 64 MB of L3 cache and can boost up to 5.1 GHz, depending on the workload. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is currently rated as the "most powerful x86 APU" on the market for AI computing.
- AI NPU with XDNA 2 ARCHITECTURE - Powered by 16 “Zen 5” CPU cores, 50+ peak AI TOPS XDNA 2 NPU and a truly massive integrated GPU driven by 40 AMD RDNA 3.5 CUs, the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 is a transformative upgrade and delivers a significant performance boost over the competition. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 excels in consumer AI workloads like the llama.cpp-powered application: LM Studio. Shaping up to be the must-have app for client LLM workloads, LM Studio allows users to locally run the latest language model without any technical knowledge required and unleash their creativity and productivity.
- AMD RADEON 8090S iGPU GAMING PC - The AMD Radeon RX 8060S offers all 40 CUs with up to 2.9 GHz graphics clock and uses the new RDNA 3.5 architecture. The powerful iGPU is positioned between an RTX 4060 and 4070 laptop GPU and therefore enables gaming in FHD at maximum details in most demanding games. The 8060S can also utilize the full 128GB pool, which is perfect for running LLMs such as Deepseek 70B Q8, which runs comfortably on this machine.
- EIGHT CHANNEL LPDDR5X - LPDDR5X is a new ground breaking memory small form factor installed on-board. With blazing speeds up to to 8000MT/s, it runs 1.5x faster than the DDR5 SODIMMs; 90% better performance over DDR5 SODIMMs in video conferencing and photo editing; 30% better performance in productivity apps; 12% better performance in digital content workloads.
- QUAD SCREEN 8K DISPLAY SUPPORT - EVO-X2 AI Mini PC support 4-screen 4K/8K output via HDMI 2.1 (8K@60Hz), DisplayPort 1.4 (4K@60Hz), and dual USB 4 40Gbps Transfer speed (supporting PD3.0/DP1.4/DATA). Ideal for gaming, video editing, and multitasking, it provides expansive and crisp multi-display support.
The event-reporting context is also relevant: theCUBE was a paid media partner for Fully Connected coverage. SiliconANGLE’s article says neither CoreWeave nor other event sponsors had editorial control.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Willow’s keyboard-free vision is a goal, not a result
Liu said Willow wants users to be able to speak to their computers without needing keyboards within two years. That is a forward-looking product aspiration, not evidence that keyboards will disappear or that Willow Voice already delivers that experience. The report does not identify any particular hardware as necessary or recommended.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- BUILT FOR COLLEGE. AND BEYOND — MacBook Air with the M5 chip packs blazing speed and powerful AI capabilities into an incredibly portable design. And with up to 18 hours of battery life,* this thin and light powerhouse is ready to take on almost any major, just about anywhere.
- TEAR THROUGH TOUGH ASSIGNMENTS — With its faster CPU and unified memory, the M5 chip delivers even more performance and fluidity across apps, making multitasking and creative workflows smooth and responsive. A powerful Neural Engine and next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerators give you a powerful platform for AI.
- MAKE QUICK WORK OF YOUR TO-DO LIST — Apple Intelligence helps you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly — whether it’s for school or everyday life. With groundbreaking privacy protections, it gives you peace of mind that no one else can access your data — not even Apple.*
- UP TO 18 HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE — MacBook Air delivers incredible battery life with amazing performance, so you can power through a full day of classes without worrying about plugging in.
- A BRILLIANT 13.6-INCH DISPLAY* — The gorgeous Liquid Retina display on MacBook Air supports 1 billion colors, making photos and videos pop with rich contrast and sharp detail, and text appears supercrisp. So everything — from class presentations to movies to games — looks truly stunning.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
