Hume's AI has been used by over 1,000 developers and 1,000 companies, including SoftBank and Lawyer.com, to build AI-based applications. The company also announced the launch of “Hume EVI,” a conversational voice API that developers can integrate into existing products or use to create apps that can detect expressional nuances in audio and text. Despite the sophistication of Hume's technology, the AI admits that detecting complex and multidimensional emotional expressions through voice and text is one of its biggest challenges due to the subjectivity of emotional expressions and the influence of factors such as gender and cultural norms.
Key takeaways:
- Hume, a New York-based startup, has raised $50 million in a series B funding round, valuing the company at $219 million. The company is developing 'emotionally intelligent' AI models that can detect and respond to over 24 distinct emotional expressions in a person's voice.
- The company has launched 'Hume EVI,' a conversational voice API that developers can integrate into existing products or build upon to create apps that can detect expressional nuances in audio and text and produce 'emotionally attuned' outputs.
- Despite the advanced technology, using AI to detect complex emotional expressions through voice and text is still an imperfect science and one of the biggest challenges for Hume. The AI's interpretations can be influenced by a range of factors including gender and social and cultural norms.
- Hume's AI has been integrated into applications in industries like health and wellness, customer service and robotics. For instance, Lawyer.com is using Hume’s AI to measure the quality of their customer service calls and train their agents, while in the healthcare sector, Hume's AI models are being used in experimental studies to track mental health conditions.