Meta has quietly snapped up AI voice startup WaveForms, The Information reports, marking its second major AI audio acquisition in just a month, after buying PlayAI. The deal’s price remains undisclosed.
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WaveForms, founded only eight months ago, had already raised $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz at a $160 million pre-money valuation, according to PitchBook. Two of its co-founders, former Meta and OpenAI researcher Alexis Conneau and ex-Google ad strategist Coralie Lemaitre, have now rejoined Meta. Conneau, notably, co-created the neural networks behind GPT-4o’s Advanced Voice Mode while at OpenAI.
The company’s mission? To solve the “Speech Turing Test,” determining whether a listener can tell human from AI-generated speech, and to develop “Emotional General Intelligence,” aimed at teaching AI to understand and manage human-like emotional states.
WaveForms’ website has already gone dark, but its tech is likely heading straight into Meta’s new Superintelligence Labs, the AI unit driving its most ambitious projects yet. No word yet on whether the startup’s third co-founder, Kartikay Khandelwal, or its 14 other employees will join the social giant.