Google Acquires Top Talent From AI Voice Startup Hume AI in Licensing Deal

Google DeepMind is hiring the CEO and respective apical engineers from Hume AI, a startup moving connected emotionally intelligent dependable interfaces, arsenic portion of a caller licensing agreement, WIRED has learned.

Financial details of the woody are confidential, but Hume AI says the institution volition proceed to proviso its exertion to different frontier AI labs.

The woody is the latest motion that AI companies expect dependable mode to go an progressively important interface for interacting with customers—and that knowing a user’s emotions and temper based connected their dependable interactions is key.

Hume AI expects to bring successful $100 cardinal successful gross successful 2026 arsenic it works with AI labs connected tuning AI models to beryllium much susceptible and utile dependable helpers, says John Beadle, cofounder and managing spouse of AEGIS Ventures, which invested successful Hume AI. So far, the institution has raised $74 cardinal successful funding.

CEO Alan Cowen, who has a PhD successful psychology, volition articulation Google DeepMind on with astir 7 different engineers. Cowen and the different Hume AI recruits volition assistance Google DeepMind integrate dependable and affectional quality into its latest models, according to sources who spoke connected the information of anonymity arsenic they aren’t authorized to talk publically astir the deal.

Hume AI has invested millions successful processing models and tools to hone realistic dependable interfaces and to observe emotions successful the voices of users. The institution trains its models by having experts annotate affectional cues successful existent conversations. At Google, Cowen and his colleagues volition assistance the tech elephantine integrate dependable and emotion exertion into its frontier models, sources say.

“Voice is going to go a superior interface for AI, that is perfectly wherever it's headed,” says Andrew Ettinger, an experienced capitalist and enforcement who is taking implicit arsenic the CEO of Hume AI. Ettinger says the institution volition beryllium releasing its latest models successful the coming months.

Beadle, of AEGIS Ventures, says AI models that tin observe a user’s emotions and accommodate accordingly volition go progressively valuable, not lone for user devices but besides successful lawsuit support. “On the quality side, AI models are rather bully astatine this point, but from the magnitude of wide helpfulness—do they recognize your emotion and tin they respond successful a mode that enables you to execute immoderate extremity you're driving towards—we deliberation there's a immense magnitude of accidental for improvement,” Beadle says.

The Hume AI woody could presumption Google to vie adjacent much aggressively with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which already features a lifelike dependable mode. Google besides precocious partnered with Apple arsenic portion of a multiyear statement that volition spot Google Gemini powerfulness a caller mentation of Siri.

The Hume AI woody is the latest statement that blurs the enactment betwixt a concern and a accepted acquisition. Such arrangements let large tech companies to extract high-value endowment without the authorities oversight that comes with a accepted acquisition—though the Federal Trade Commission precocious said it volition statesman scrutinizing alleged “aqui-hires.”

In 2024, Google DeepMind reportedly paid $3 cardinal to licence exertion from Character.ai, a institution moving connected lifelike chatbot companions. Similar deals person seen Microsoft prosecute apical endowment from Inflection; Amazon enlistee the squad down Adept; and Meta snag the CEO of Scale AI.