Google Acquires Leading Talent from AI Voice Company Hume AI

Google DeepMind is recruiting the CEO and several key engineers from Hume AI, a startup focused on emotionally intelligent voice interfaces, as part of a new licensing agreement, according to WIRED.

While the financial specifics of the agreement remain undisclosed, Hume AI confirms that it will continue to provide its technology to various frontier AI labs.

This arrangement reflects an expectation among AI companies that voice interaction will increasingly serve as a vital interface for customer engagement, emphasizing the importance of interpreting user emotions and moods through voice interactions.

Hume AI anticipates achieving $100 million in revenue by 2026 as it collaborates with AI labs to enhance the capabilities of AI models for more effective voice assistance, states John Beadle, cofounder and managing partner of AEGIS Ventures, which has invested in Hume AI. The company has secured $74 million in funding thus far.

CEO Alan Cowen, who holds a PhD in psychology, along with about seven other engineers, will join Google DeepMind. Cowen and the Hume AI team will assist in integrating voice and emotional intelligence into the latest models, according to sources who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussions.

Hume AI has invested significantly in developing models and tools to create realistic voice interfaces and identify user emotions. The company trains its models by having experts annotate emotional signals in real conversations. At Google, Cowen and his team will work to incorporate voice and emotion technology into the company’s leading models, sources indicate.

“Voice is poised to become a primary interface for AI, and that’s clearly the direction we’re heading,” comments Andrew Ettinger, an experienced investor and executive who is stepping in as CEO of Hume AI. Ettinger notes that the company will unveil its latest models in the coming months.

Beadle from AEGIS Ventures highlights that AI models capable of perceiving a user’s emotions and adjusting their responses will be increasingly valuable, not just for consumer products but also for customer service applications. “On the intelligence front, AI models are already quite proficient, but in terms of overall helpfulness—whether they grasp your emotions and can respond appropriately to help you achieve your goals—there remains significant room for improvement,” Beadle explains.

The Hume AI agreement may position Google to compete more vigorously against OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which already features a natural-sounding voice mode. Additionally, Google recently partnered with Apple in a multiyear agreement that will see Google Gemini powering a new iteration of Siri.

This arrangement with Hume AI exemplifies a trend that blurs the line between partnerships and traditional acquisitions. Such agreements enable major tech firms to attract high-value talent without the regulatory scrutiny associated with formal acquisitions, although the Federal Trade Commission has indicated it will begin to closely examine these “aqui-hires.”

In 2024, it was reported that Google DeepMind spent $3 billion to license technology from Character.ai, a company focused on lifelike chatbot companions. Similar agreements have led to Microsoft recruiting talent from Inflection, Amazon hiring the team behind Adept, and Meta acquiring the CEO of Scale AI.