AI Voice Startup From Ex-OpenAI Researcher Valued at $200 Million
WaveForms wants to help people have better spoken conversations with machines.
A lead researcher behind OpenAI’s voice assistant has raised $40 million in funding from venture firm Andreessen Horowitz for a new artificial intelligence startup focused on helping people have better spoken conversations with computers.
WaveForms AI, which launched Monday, is working on AI audio software to pick up on emotional cues and enable more seamless verbal interactions with machines, co-founder and chief executive officer Alexis Conneau told Bloomberg News. The seed funding values WaveForms at $200 million, the company said.
The startup is one of a growing number of AI companies moving beyond text-based chatbots to offer human-sounding voice features. The technology offers the promise of creating more versatile digital assistants and customer service agents, among other use cases.
At OpenAI, Conneau developed the company’s advanced voice mode, which is meant to respond in nearly real time to users’ spoken requests with a dynamic, human-sounding voice of its own. Conneau left OpenAI in August and began working on San Francisco-based WaveForms in September — the same month OpenAI rolled out the voice assistant to all of its paid ChatGPT users.