In a swift move, Meta has snapped up WaveForms—an AI voice startup aiming to blur the line between human and synthetic speech. Here’s what it means for the future of AI conversations.
Meta is doubling down on AI voice tech—and it’s not slowing down. Just weeks after acquiring PlayAI, the company has now quietly acquired WaveForms, an ambitious AI audio startup focused on solving what it calls the “Speech Turing Test.”
The acquisition, first reported by The Information, signals Meta’s growing ambition in the AI voice space as it scales its internal AI division, Superintelligence Labs. While the deal amount remains undisclosed, WaveForms had previously raised $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at $160 million pre-money.
What’s more telling is who’s joining Meta. Two WaveForms co-founders—Alexis Conneau (a former OpenAI and Meta researcher who co-created GPT-4o’s Advanced Voice Mode) and Coralie Lemaitre (an ex-Google ad strategist)—have reportedly joined the tech giant.
The startup was only eight months old.
WaveForms aimed to solve a deeply human challenge: can a listener truly tell if a voice is human or AI? Its pursuit of “Emotional General Intelligence” also hints at tech capable of understanding emotional nuance—something even the best voice AIs today struggle with.
With the company’s website now offline and questions still swirling around the fate of its 14-person team, one thing is clear: Meta isn’t just building smarter AI—it wants it to feel more human too.
Key Takeaways:
- Meta acquires WaveForms, just 8 months after its founding.
- Startup focused on hyper-realistic AI speech and emotional AI.
- Two key co-founders join Meta, including a GPT-4o architect.
- Aims to pass the “Speech Turing Test” and mimic human emotions.