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 interaction.
A former distinguished scientist at Amazon 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’s mission is to offer live audio products significantly cheaper to develop and deploy than rivals like OpenAI.
“What we have is about an order of magnitude more affordable [than competitors], and I would say it’s nonetheless very competent to use,” Smola told Fortune. Boson says their models are one-tenth of the cost of others.
AI voice technology has become a primary front for OpenAI, Meta, 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’s “new voice model really crossed a threshold.”
