Sesame is a conversational AI startup founded by Brendan Iribe, former CEO of Oculus, and Ankit Kumar, former CTO of Ubiquity6. It recently announced a $250 million Series B funding round and has begun offering its Beta application to a select group of testers. The company is working on smart glasses equipped with an AI personal assistant, allowing users to interact with it through natural speech.

Sesame first emerged from secrecy in February, showcasing two demo AI voices called "Maya" and "Miles." These voices attracted over 1 million visitors within a few weeks, with more than five million minutes of conversations held. Sequoia, an investor in Sesame, mentioned in an article about the company's Series B funding, "This experience is different from anything we've used before. Sesame's conversation layer doesn't just convert the output of large language models into audio, but directly generates speech, capturing the rhythm, emotion, and expressiveness of real conversations."

Early technical reviews suggest that Sesame's product is considered "truly interesting" and "naturally spoken." The company states that its upcoming smart glasses will provide "high-quality audio" and allow the AI partner to "see the world alongside the user."

Sequoia also emphasized that the smart glasses being developed by Sesame will have a stylish appearance, making consumers willing to wear them even without built-in AI technology. The exact release date for these glasses has not been disclosed, with Sequoia stating, "Hardware development takes time."

In terms of the team, Sesame's founding members include Nate Mitchell, co-founder of Oculus, as Chief Product Officer, Hans Hartmann, former Chief Operating Officer of Oculus and a former executive at Fitbit, as Chief Operating Officer, and Ryan Brown, former Engineering Manager at Oculus and Director of Engineering at Reality Labs, and Angela Gayles, former executives at Facebook and Meta, among others.

Alongside announcing the Series B funding, Iribe also stated on the social platform X that Sesame's iOS application has entered the early Beta testing phase. Testers will be able to experience this developing AI technology firsthand. The application will feature "search, text, and thinking" functions. Currently, Beta testers are required to keep the testing experience confidential, including not discussing the features or results of the test unless on the official testing forum.

Key points:   

🌟 Sesame successfully completed a $250 million Series B funding round, and the Beta version of its smart glasses is now open for testing.   

👓 Smart glasses will be equipped with an AI assistant, allowing users to interact through natural speech.   

🗣️ The AI voice technology received positive feedback from users, demonstrating the naturalness of real conversations.