{"id":423243,"date":"2026-01-22T16:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423243\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T16:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:45:07","slug":"google-reportedly-snags-up-team-behind-ai-voice-startup-hume-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423243\/","title":{"rendered":"Google reportedly snags up team behind AI voice startup Hume AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

The top talent behind yet another promising AI startup has been gobbled up by an incumbent. As part of a new licensing agreement, Google DeepMind is bringing on the CEO and several of the top engineers at voice AI startup Hume AI, reports Wired<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left of Hume AI will continue to supply its technology to other AI firms. No financial details of the deal were shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TechCrunch has reached out to Google and Hume AI to confirm the news.<\/p>\n

CEO Alan Cowen and about seven other engineers will work with DeepMind to improve Gemini\u2019s voice features, according to Wired.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hume acquihire is the latest example of a leading AI firm scooping top talent off the market and skirting regulatory scrutiny by acquiring a startup\u2019s team rather than the company outright. Last year, Google acquired viral AI coding startup Windsurf\u2019s CEO<\/a> and other top researchers, and OpenAI has acquired several startup teams in recent months, including Covogo<\/a> and Roi<\/a>. The Federal Trade Commission recently said<\/a> that it would take a closer look at such deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deal also shows that voice is becoming the next frontier in AI.<\/p>\n

Hume AI\u2019s secret sauce is its model\u2019s ability to understand a user\u2019s emotions and mood based on their voice. In 2024, the startup launched its Empathetic Voice Interface<\/a>, a conversational AI with emotional intelligence. Hume AI has raised close to $80 million to date according to PitchBook, and expects to bring in $100 million in revenue this year, per Wired.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

But Hume AI isn\u2019t the only company working on voice-focused models. Google has been steadily improving its Gemini Live feature, which allows a user to have conversations with the chatbot. Last month, Google released a new native audio model for the Live API that improved the model\u2019s ability to \u201chandle complex workflows,\u201d per the Gemini API release notes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others in the industry are investing big into voice capabilities as well. OpenAI is reportedly<\/a> preparing to overhaul its audio models in preparation for its audio-first personal device, created with Jonny Ive\u2019s io, to launch this year. Recent leaks suggest the device could be a form of earbuds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, Meta also accelerated its AI audio push by acquiring startup Play AI<\/a>. The Facebook-maker\u2019s Ray-Ban smart glasses are increasingly relying on voice and audio capabilities for tasks like helping you hear conversations in noisy rooms<\/a> and enabling hands-free control for calls, texts, music, and photos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVoice is the only acceptable input mode for wearables,\u201d investor Vanessa Larco<\/a> told TechCrunch. \u201cThis acquisition will only accelerate the need for voice apps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demand continues to increase for voice capabilities. Earlier this month, ElevenLabs, the AI voice generation startup, said it crossed $330 million<\/a> in annual recurring revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The top talent behind yet another promising AI startup has been gobbled up by an incumbent. As part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[201771,182,181,507,74708,201772,74,7763],"class_list":{"0":"post-423243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-acquihire","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-google-deepmind","13":"tag-hume-ai","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-voice-ai"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}