OpenAI Engineering Blog 2026-05-05-1
OpenAI's WebRTC rearchitecture for low-latency voice
OpenAI's voice rearchitecture moves the competition down a layer; the model is no longer where the gap opens. The published mechanics, split relay plus stateful transceiver, ufrag-encoded routing, and the hire of WebRTC's original architects, buy deterministic first-packet routing and a Kubernetes-native UDP surface that competitors stitching LiveKit and ElevenLabs cannot replicate without comparable POP density. The explicit 1:1 framing also breaks the SFU default for voice agents, leaving specialist delivery vendors competing for a multiparty-shaped TAM.