{"id":18595,"date":"2026-07-27T11:06:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=18595"},"modified":"2026-07-27T11:06:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:06:05","slug":"how-an-ex-aws-scientist-plans-to-take-on-openai-and-meta-in-voice-ai-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=18595","title":{"rendered":"How an ex-AWS scientist plans to take on OpenAI and Meta in voice AI models"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AI voice models are having a moment, and Alex Smola is seeing it up close.<\/p>\n

\n

As the founder of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Boson AI, a startup that is set to release its first speech-to-speech model named Higgs RealTime, Smola says voice models have finally reached the threshold needed to drive the next leap in human-machine interaction.<\/p>\n

A former distinguished scientist at Amazon<\/a> and a leading machine learning researcher, he launched Boson after recognizing that the industry was moving beyond text-only interfaces. This is driven by the belief that multimodal AI, including audio and vision, delivers a far richer user experience. Beyond capability, he is also aiming for price competitiveness. Boson\u2019s mission is to offer live audio products significantly cheaper to develop and deploy than rivals like OpenAI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have is about an order of magnitude more affordable [than competitors], and I would say it\u2019s nonetheless very competent to use,\u201d Smola told Fortune<\/em>. Boson says their models are one-tenth of the cost of others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AI voice technology<\/a> has become a primary front for OpenAI, Meta<\/a>, and other industry leaders racing to build the next evolution of chatbots. Teams across the sector are focused heavily on full-duplex systems, or technology that enables natural, fluid back-and-forth conversations where users can interrupt the AI mid-sentence. OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman recently posted that he now talks with ChatGPT more than he texts with it, noting that the company\u2019s \u201cnew voice model really crossed a threshold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smola\u2019s key differentiator for Boson is its \u201cfull-stack\u201d model that he says makes their tech cheaper. The company says it allows enterprise customers to run systems within their own data centers and train custom voice and video models from scratch. That approach gives enterprise clients direct control over data residency and model execution in sensitive business environments, he said. In general, Smola has been an advocate for open-weight, customizable models, aligning with Meta and other open-source advocates. But since he\u2019s also targeting business customers, he\u2019s ultimately building proprietary models.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The three-year-old startup has raised $70 million and is backed by Chinese entrepreneur Su Hua and the venture arm of Singapore-based investment firm Temasek. Smola is initially targeting clients across finance, telecommunications, healthcare, and insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of machine interaction for customer support and sales\u2026 will become automated with voice agents,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can be strictly superior [to humans].\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the high costs full-duplex audio can incur because it increases use of graphics processing units, a central hurdle in building voice interfaces is latency. While a one-second response lag is acceptable in text chat, that same pause feels awkward and disruptive in spoken conversation. To bridge the gap, Smola says Boson is training its AI for the nuances of the \u201chuman condition,\u201d including the ability to parse emotional tone like cheerfulness or passive-aggressiveness, as well as rapid speech patterns.<\/p>\n

Still, Boson faces formidable incumbents. Microsoft<\/a> recently announced the latest iteration of its voice model, while OpenAI debuted GPT-Live, a family of full-duplex audio models. Meta\u2019s new Muse Spark model is similarly optimized for voice, with the company claiming it \u201clets you talk naturally with the assistant\u2014interrupt, switch topics, or swap languages.\u201d While Microsoft is positioning its audio models around workplace productivity and OpenAI is bidding to become the default for app developers, Meta is targeting hardware integration across its lineup of wearable devices.<\/p>\n

In the future, Smola envisions robots equipped with animated faces and souped-up voice models becoming household staples, \u00e0 la the sci-fi blockbuster I, Robot<\/em>. For now, the enterprise value lies in practical automation, he said, such as voice models maintaining total context during sales calls to generate real-time logs and personalized records faster than human teams can.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Smola sees embodied AI as the end goal. Robots combining reasoning, vision, and voice will \u201creally be the ultimate technical frontier.\u201d<\/p>\n

See you tomorrow,<\/p>\n

Sebastian Herrera<\/strong>
Email: <\/strong>sebastian.herrera@fortune.com
@SebasAHerrera<\/a>
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter.<\/em> Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

VENTURE DEALS<\/h3>\n

– <\/span>AegisAI<\/b><\/a>, a San Francisco-based email security company, raised $36 million in Series A funding. <\/span>Battery<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Accel<\/b> and <\/span>Foundation<\/b> Capital<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

– <\/span>Paper<\/b><\/a>, a San Francisco-based design platform for agentic AI, raised $34 million in Series A funding. <\/span>Accel<\/b> and <\/span>ICONIQ<\/b> led the round.<\/span><\/p>\n

– <\/span>TidalSense<\/b><\/a>, a Cambridge, U.K.-based respiratory diagnostics company, raised $19 million in funding from <\/span>Cross-Border Impact Ventures <\/b>and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

– <\/span>Pilot<\/b> Protocol<\/b><\/a>, a San Francisco-based developer of a network operating system for AI agents, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. <\/span>Version<\/b> One<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Precursor<\/b> Ventures<\/b> and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

PRIVATE EQUITY<\/h3>\n

– <\/span>Entrepreneur<\/b> Equity<\/b> Partners<\/b> acquired a minority stake in <\/span>Bolton<\/b> Wanderers<\/b> Football<\/b> Club<\/b><\/a>, a Bolton, U.K.-based soccer club. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n

– <\/span>Mission<\/b> Critical<\/b> Group<\/b>, backed by <\/span>Emerald<\/b> Lake<\/b> Capital<\/b> Management<\/b>, agreed to merge with <\/span>CORE<\/b> Transformers<\/b><\/a>, a Seneca, S.C.-based supplier of transformers for data centers and other applications. Financial terms were not disclosed. <\/span><\/p>\n

IPOs<\/h3>\n

– <\/span>Scribe Therapeutics<\/b><\/a>, an Alameda, Calif.-based biotechnology company developing CRISPR-based genetic medicines, raised $129 million in an offering of 8.6 million shares priced at $15 on the Nasdaq.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI voice models are having a moment, and Alex Smola is seeing it up close. As the founder of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Boson AI, a startup that is set to release its first speech-to-speech model named Higgs RealTime, Smola says voice models have finally reached the threshold needed to drive the next leap in human-machine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002,"featured_media":18596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nHow an ex-AWS scientist plans to take on OpenAI and Meta in voice AI models 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As the founder of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Boson AI, a startup that is set to release its first speech-to-speech model named Higgs RealTime, Smola says voice models have finally reached the threshold needed to drive the next leap in human-machine…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Alex-highres96.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}