WaveForms AI, a new startup founded by Alexis Conneau, the lead researcher behind OpenAI’s voice assistant, has secured $40 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz.
The company is focused on developing AI audio technology that can detect emotional cues in speech, enabling more natural and engaging conversations between humans and machines.
Valued at $200 million, WaveForms aims to improve voice assistant technology, offering more sophisticated digital assistants and customer service agents beyond traditional text-based chatbots, according to Bloomberg.
Conneau, who developed OpenAI’s advanced voice mode that responds in real time with a dynamic, human-like voice, left the company in August.
He started working on WaveForms, a San Francisco-based startup, in September, the same month OpenAI launched its voice assistant for all paid ChatGPT users.
Conneau explained that WaveForms aims to create AI capable of delivering more immersive voice interactions. This challenge involves developing software that can understand not only the words people use but also how they speak, without requiring pre-training on all the nuances of individual interactions.
For instance, an AI voice assistant might need to recognize hesitation in a person’s voice during a conversation about a math problem and use that cue to adjust its response accordingly.
“If you get a bit frustrated, as well, it could also adapt and just reassure you a little bit,” Conneau said. The assistant might then respond by saying, “It’s OK. It’s complicated content. Let’s take a step back and go step by step so that you understand this concept.
