The recent acquisition of PlayAI, the voice technology start-up company, by Meta, the Facebook parent, further highlights its strategy of active expansion in the area of artificial intelligence. This is the latest acquisition exercise following Meta’s purchase of $14.3 billion of AI data to mark Scale AI, aimed at building an advanced AI system with human capabilities.
According to an internal memorandum received by Bloomberg, the entire PlayAI team will join Meta’s operating system once the acquisition is completed. The memorandum also revealed that the PlayAI team would report directly to Johan Schalkwyk. Schalkwyk himself was recently poached by Meta from another voice AI starter, Sesame AI Inc. PlayAI focuses on multilingual voice cloning, real-time voice synthesis and programmable voice agency techniques. Meta is expected to use PlayAI technology to enhance voice functions on multiple platforms under the flag, including Quest VR headlights and Ray-Ban smart glasses. Developers may also in the future obtain PlayAI’s API interface to create a custom voice agency and role.
Meta has made AI a top priority this year, and the company is investing heavily in the infrastructure, and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg is actively recruiting top talent from other AI companies. Zuckerberg recently announced the establishment of the “Meta Super Smart Laboratory”, led by CEO Alexander Wang of Scale AI. The objective of the AI project is to achieve super-smart AI before any rival. Meta is actively competing with rivals like Google and OpenAI to develop leading AI functions. This time, the news about the takeover followed Meta’s acquisition of Scale AI and the recruitment of its CEO to join the newly formed “super smart” team in Zuckerberg. Bloomberg reports that Zuckerberg has been supplementing the new team with leading companies, Google and OpenAI, for AI researchers. It was reported that Meta had recently dug up three researchers from the Zurich office of OpenAI, the manufacturer of ChatGPT, who confirmed that the persons concerned had now left. CEO Sam Altmann of OpenAI claimed in a podcast that Meta had awarded researchers up to $100 million in contract bonuses.
It was previously reported that before finalizing the investment in Scale AI, Meta had entered into acquisition negotiations with the initial search company, Perplexity AI. It added that Meta had also discussed the possible acquisition of Runway AI, an AI video start-up company, but that those discussions had not resulted in a formal acquisition offer.