Facebook Acquires Speech to Structured Code Startup Wit.Ai
Facebook have announced the acquisition of speech to code specialist startup Wit.Ai. The Wit.Ai platform specializes in the development of software tools that can receive the spoken word and break down what is said down into sections that can better be understood by a computer. Think: Siri.
Small Startup, Big Hopes
Wit.Ai began as a startup in a Palo Alto garage just 18 months ago with $3m of seek capital from venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz. It has worked with 6,000 coders who have helped to improve the code platform. In September 2013 the company launched their natural language understanding API and invited programmers to get involved using the API and incorporating it into their own programs with an initial 1,100 programmers jumping on-board with this effort.
Founders Previously Involved With Technology Behind Siri
This is not the first time that the people involved with Wit.Ai have worked on the problem of natural language and getting computers to understand English better. The founders were previously involved with virtual assistant company VirtuOz which helped US blue chip companies deal with natural language with their online virutal assistant programs. The company was sold in 2012 to Nuance (which powers the Apple Siri interface) for an undisclosed sum.
API Can Be Used By Any Programmer
The Wit.Ai interface converts spoken natural language into structured JSON code that a mobile app can readily understand and can be used programmatically. The API is completely free to use. Hundreds of apps already use the API to process speech, and some home automation systems and wearable devices also tap into its speech toolkit too.
A Good Deal For Facebook
The Facebook deal represents a big win for the social media giant which has 1.3 billion people connected to their service. Being able to use natural language speech recognition in the Facebook experience could be the next big step for the company and it looks like they're hoping that the Wit.Ai acquisition can help with that goal.
Given the pedigree of the founders of Wit.Ai it looks like Facebook has made a great purchase here and more changes to the main Facebook app and especially the Facebook Messenger app will be forthcoming with speech to text.
