Meta Acquires AI Audio Startup WaveForms

Meta Platforms has acquired WaveForms AI, a small startup working on artificial intelligence capable of understanding emotion and mimicking it in audio form, according to a person with direct knowledge.

The acquisition comes as Meta continues to overhaul its efforts in AI, after stumbles earlier this year. In June, the social media giant hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang as its chief AI officer and agreed to invest $14.3 billion in the data-labeling company. Meta also hired former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and former Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and is expected to partially buy out their venture capital fund, NFDG.