Meta Platforms has acquired WaveForms AI, a startup specializing in artificial intelligence technology that understands and mimics emotion in audio. Founded in December 2024, WaveForms AI raised $40 million in a seed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz before the acquisition. The startup was co-founded by Alexis Conneau and Coralie Lemaitre, with Conneau having previously led GPT-4o's voice development. The acquisition aligns with Meta's broader strategy to enhance its AI capabilities, particularly in voice interactions, and is part of its Superintelligence Labs initiative, co-led by Alexandr Wang and Nat Friedman. WaveForms AI aims to pass the "Speech Turing Test" by producing human-like speech. This move follows Meta's recent AI-related hires and acquisitions, including the purchase of PlayAI and the recruitment of Johan Schalkwyk, former head of machine learning at voice AI startup Sesame. Meta's aggressive AI expansion efforts also include the appointment of Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang as chief AI officer and investments aimed at competing with companies like OpenAI and Google.