Facebook has acquired voice recognition startup Wit.ai

Facebook apparently has an interest in voice recognition technology, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of Wit.ai. The startup isn’t even two years old yet and it has already recruited around 6,000 developers for what it describes as “an open, distributed, community-based platform that makes it easy for developers to build apps that users can talk to.”

Facebook’s latest known acquisition involves a startup specializing in voice recognition technology. The firm, Wit.ai, began life just 18 months ago, and exists as “an open, distributed, community-based platform that makes it easy for developers to build apps that users can talk to,” according to the Palo Alto-based team that runs the operation. Wit.ai has gathered around 6,000 developers in its short life, building a collection of voice recognition-related apps that currently numbers in the hundreds. The terms of the deal aren’t currently known, nor is the specific reason why Facebook decided to acquire the startup, though obviously the social networking giant is looking to make use of its technology somewhere down the line, possibly involving its existing products – among them its Facebook app, Messenger and WhatsApp – or in other ventures beyond its core business.