Smartly, Meta has played their hand by swooping in and acquiring WaveForms, an up and coming AI voice startup. This overall acquisition will instantly improve Meta’s power in synthetic intelligence. The collective, which officially formed only eight months ago, has already made remarkable strides in creating technology that promotes a holistic form of “Emotional General Intelligence.” This groundbreaking program is designed to improve personal self-awareness and management abilities.
WaveForms made quite a splash with all the attention and investment. Announced funding rounds Andreessen Horowitz led raised Identified $40m 36x $160m pre-money valuation. This significant support underscores the market’s excitement for WaveForms’ transformative potential, and its innovative, new approach to AI-generated voice.
The purchase follows on the heels of Meta’s aggressive push to expand its AI research. WaveForms’ co-founders—Alexis Conneau and Coralie Lemaitre—both have impressive pedigrees alongside other institutions before joining Meta. Conneau did prior research at Meta and OpenAI. At the same time, Lemaitre worked as a political advertising strategist at Google. Their stellar knowhow is likely to be a key component in helping propel Meta’s AI initiatives.
Aesthetic Engineering WaveForms was especially interested in creating something they called “Emotional General Intelligence.” Centered on the premise of not just understanding your emotions but regulating them, this idea has the potential to change the user experience with AI tools dramatically. The startup’s approach dovetails with emerging tech industry trends calling for emotional awareness in technology design.
WaveForms’ technology is creating a paradigm shift in the industry, while unlocking the emotional experience of human connectivity. This knowledge, when applied thoughtfully, can significantly improve user experience. The company was best known for creating the commercial version of the “Speech Turing Test.” This test, a variant of the Turing test, aims to assess an AI’s capacity for emotionally aware conversation.
With the acquisition, Meta hopes to bring WaveForms’ cutting-edge tech to its own platforms in days to come. This move will continue to strengthen Meta’s position as a leader in AI development.
“Emotional General Intelligence” – WaveForms