Deepgram to buy Daily, maker of free Pipecat software for building talking AI
The voice AI company says Pipecat will stay open source under a new independent foundation.
Deepgram, a company that makes speech-recognition and voice technology for AI systems, said Oct. 29 in San Francisco that it is acquiring Daily, the company behind Pipecat. Pipecat is free, open-source software that developers use to build voice agents, AI programs people can talk with out loud. Deepgram did not disclose a price.
Deepgram said Pipecat will stay free under its current license, and that an independent Pipecat Foundation is being set up with other groups that use it. Daily's staff will join Deepgram.
"Keeping Pipecat open was fundamental to our decision to join Deepgram," said Kwindla Hultman Kramer, a Daily co-founder who becomes Deepgram's head of open source.
Deepgram also introduced what it calls the Real-Time Context Standard, an open set of rules for passing along details that get lost when speech becomes text, such as tone of voice, who is talking and background noise. The company said that could let an agent ask a person to repeat an unclear word or answer softly when someone whispers.