French AI Startup Kyutai Unveils Voice Assistant Moshi

The non-profit organisation Kyutai unveiled the voice assistant Moshi at an event in Paris.

Developers claimed their system speaks with 70 different emotions and styles, offers advice on climbing Everest, and reads its own poetry.

“It thinks as it speaks. We believe Moshi has great potential to change the way we communicate with machines and through them,” noted the organisation’s CEO, Patrick Perez.

He added that the team will publish the underlying models, research, and code of the AI assistant.

Moshi and Alex going on a space adventure ? pic.twitter.com/WRkPCScZ9F

— kyutai (@kyutai_labs) July 3, 2024

Kyutai was launched in November 2023 with €300 million in funding, including contributions from French billionaires Xavier Niel, Rodolphe Saadé, and former Google chairman Eric Schmidt.

Niel noted that Moshi reflects Europe’s potential to become a global player in AI development.

“All the products presented today are best in class worldwide. We are very excited that this is happening in Europe,” he said.

In May, OpenAI announced a “more human-like” version of ChatGPT with voice interaction capabilities.

In June, Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI raised €600 million.

Earlier that month, venture firm Accel reported that French startups are leading in attracting investments in Europe.