Google DeepMind acquires Hume AI leadership to accelerate emotionally intelligent voice technology

Google reportedly snags up team behind AI voice startup Hume AI

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. What's left of Hume AI will continue to supply its technology to other AI firms. No financial details of the deal were shared. TechCrunch has reached out to Google and Hume AI to confirm the news. CEO Alan Cowen and about seven other engineers will work with DeepMind to improve Gemini's voice features, according to Wired. 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's team rather than the company outright. Last year, Google acquired viral AI coding startup Windsurf's CEO and other top researchers, and OpenAI has acquired several startup teams in recent months, including Covogo and Roi. The Federal Trade Commission recently said that it would take a closer look at such deals. The deal also shows that voice is becoming the next frontier in AI. Hume AI's secret sauce is its model's ability to understand a user's emotions and mood based on their voice. In 2024, the startup launched its Empathetic Voice Interface, 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. But Hume AI isn't 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's ability to "handle complex workflows," per the Gemini API release notes. Others in the industry are investing big into voice capabilities as well. OpenAI is reportedly preparing to overhaul its audio models in preparation for its audio-first personal device, created with Jonny Ive's io, to launch this year. Recent leaks suggest the device could be a form of earbuds. Last year, Meta also accelerated its AI audio push by acquiring startup Play AI. The Facebook-maker's Ray-Ban smart glasses are increasingly relying on voice and audio capabilities for tasks like helping you hear conversations in noisy rooms and enabling hands-free control for calls, texts, music, and photos. "Voice is the only acceptable input mode for wearables," investor Vanessa Larco told TechCrunch. "This acquisition will only accelerate the need for voice apps." Demand continues to increase for voice capabilities. Earlier this month, ElevenLabs, the AI voice generation startup, said it crossed $330 million in annual recurring revenue.

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

Google DeepMind is hiring the CEO and several top engineers from Hume AI, a startup working on emotionally intelligent voice interfaces, as part of a new licensing agreement, WIRED has learned. Financial details of the deal are confidential, but Hume AI says the company will continue to supply its technology to other frontier AI labs. The deal is the latest sign that AI companies expect voice mode to become an increasingly important interface for interacting with customers -- and that understanding a user's emotions and mood based on their voice interactions is key. Hume AI expects to bring in $100 million in revenue in 2026 as it works with AI labs on tuning AI models to be more capable and useful voice helpers, says John Beadle, cofounder and managing partner of AEGIS Ventures, which invested in Hume AI. So far, the company has raised $74 million in funding. CEO Alan Cowen, who has a PhD in psychology, will join Google DeepMind along with roughly seven other engineers. Cowen and the other Hume AI recruits will help Google DeepMind integrate voice and emotional intelligence into its latest models, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they aren't authorized to speak publicly about the deal. Hume AI has invested millions in developing models and tools to hone realistic voice interfaces and to detect emotions in the voices of users. The company trains its models by having experts annotate emotional cues in real conversations. At Google, Cowen and his colleagues will help the tech giant integrate voice and emotion technology into its frontier models, sources say. "Voice is going to become a primary interface for AI, that is absolutely where it's headed," says Andrew Ettinger, an experienced investor and executive who is taking over as the CEO of Hume AI. Ettinger says the company will be releasing its latest models in the coming months. Beadle, of AEGIS Ventures, says AI models that can detect a user's emotions and adapt accordingly will become increasingly valuable, not only for consumer devices but also in customer support. "On the intelligence side, AI models are quite good at this point, but from the dimension of general helpfulness -- do they understand your emotion and can they respond in a way that enables you to achieve whatever goal you're driving towards -- we think there's a huge amount of opportunity for improvement," Beadle says. The Hume AI deal could position Google to compete even more aggressively with OpenAI's ChatGPT, which already features a lifelike voice mode. Google also recently partnered with Apple as part of a multiyear agreement that will see Google Gemini power a new version of Siri. The Hume AI deal is the latest arrangement that blurs the line between a partnership and a conventional acquisition. Such arrangements allow big tech companies to extract high-value talent without the government oversight that comes with a traditional acquisition -- though the Federal Trade Commission recently said it will begin scrutinizing so-called "aqui-hires." In 2024, Google DeepMind reportedly paid $3 billion to license technology from Character.ai, a company working on lifelike chatbot companions. Similar deals have seen Microsoft hire top talent from Inflection; Amazon recruit the team behind Adept; and Meta snag the CEO of Scale AI.

Google Recruits Hume CEO Alan Cowen to Bolster Voice AI Efforts | PYMNTS.com

As part of the deal, DeepMind will hire Hume CEO Alan Cowen and several of the company's top engineers, the report said. The deal is the latest indication that AI companies like DeepMind think voice mode will become key in interacting with consumers, according to the report. An important part of these interactions is the ability for AI to understand a user's emotions and mood based on their voice. Enter Hume, which develops models and tools to craft realistic voice interfaces and detect users' emotions through their voices, training its models by having experts annotate emotional cues in actual conversations, the report said. Cowen and his colleagues will help Google weave voice and emotion technology into its frontier models, according to the report, which cited unnamed sources. "Voice is going to become a primary interface for AI, that is absolutely where it's headed," said Andrew Ettinger, an investor and executive who is taking over as Hume AI's CEO, per the report. Hume AI expects to bring in $100 million in revenue this year as it works on transforming AI models into better voice helpers, said John Beadle, co-founder and managing partner of AEGIS Ventures, which invested in the startup, according to the report. AI models that can recognize a user's emotions and adjust accordingly will become increasingly valuable for consumer devices and customer support, he said, per the report. "On the intelligence side, AI models are quite good at this point, but from the dimension of general helpfulness -- do they understand your emotion, and can they respond in a way that enables you to achieve whatever goal you're driving towards -- we think there's a huge amount of opportunity for improvement," he said, according to the report. In a column about voice AI, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster said 2026 will be the year in which the technology "will finally pull agentic commerce onto the mobile phone by turning complex, desktop-only 'go-do-this-for-me' prompts into natural, spoken conversations that consumers can have anywhere." Successful platforms will "embed capable voice agents deeply into devices, apps and operating systems," not just "bolt AI onto legacy assistants," Webster said. For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.