Modal, Neon, and Unkey are used to build and deploy an AI API that can transcribe and summarize text using the Whisper model from OpenAI. The process involves setting up a new FastAPI application with Modal context loaded, creating a transcription route, adding data persistence with Neon, and adding authentication with Unkey. Unkey provides API keys a service so that developers can safely open up access to their API in minutes. With Unkey, developers can add authentication to their APIs in just a few lines of code, making it easy to control access to the API and ensure secure deployment.