AI Voice startup from ex-OpenAI researcher raises $40m

• Published On: 09 December 2024 at 19:38

WaveForms AI, a new startup founded by Alexis Conneau, the lead researcher behind OpenAI's voice assistant, has raised $40 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz.

The company is working on developing AI audio technology that can detect emotional cues in speech, allowing for more natural and engaging conversations between humans and machines.

WaveForms, valued at $200 million, aims to improve voice assistant technology by providing more sophisticated digital assistants and customer service agents than traditional text-based chatbots, according to Bloomberg.

Conneau, the developer of OpenAI's advanced voice mode, which responds in real time with a dynamic, human-like voice, left the company in August.

He began working on WaveForms, a San Francisco-based startup, in September, the same month that OpenAI released its voice assistant for all paid ChatGPT users.

Conneau explained that WaveForms' goal is to create AI capable of providing more immersive voice interactions. This challenge entails creating software that can understand not only the words people use, but also how they speak, without requiring extensive pre-training on the nuances of individual interactions.

For example, an AI voice assistant may need to detect hesitation in a person's voice during a conversation about a maths problem and adjust its response accordingly.

"If you get a bit frustrated, as well, it could also adapt and just reassure you a little bit," Conneau told me. The assistant might then respond with, "It's fine. It's complicated content. Let's take a step back and go over this concept step by step to ensure you understand it.