MongoDB Acquires Voyage AI to Combat Hallucinations

Database company MongoDB acquired artificial intelligence firm Voyage AI.

The deal — worth $220 million, according to a Monday (Feb. 24) Bloomberg report — is designed to help MongoDB’s customers build better AI-powered applications through “highly accurate and relevant information retrieval deeply integrated with operational data,” according to a Monday press release.

“AI-powered applications can address a broad range of complex use cases that traditional software cannot,” the release said. “However, because AI models are probabilistic, they can hallucinate –– when a model generates false or misleading information.”

Low-quality or incorrect results can lead to “serious risks” in instances where accurate information is crucial, such as cancer screenings at hospitals or legal advice from law firms, meaning that AI applications are often limited to “mission-critical use cases,” according to the release.

Companies need “high-quality retrieval,” ensuring that the most relevant information is pulled from their data with precision, per the release.

“Voyage AI’s advanced embedding and reranking models enable applications to extract meaning from highly specialized and domain-specific text and unstructured data — ranging from legal and financial documents to images, code and enterprise knowledge bases,” the release said. “Their models are trusted by leading AI innovators like Anthropic, LangChain, Harvey and Replit.”

Voyage AI co-founder and CEO Tengyu Ma said in a company blog post Monday that combining his company’s tech with MongoDB’s infrastructure will create “a stronger, more cohesive solution for AI developers.”

Meanwhile, the market for AI-powered humanoid robots is increasingly crowded following the release of products from the likes of Figure.

Jenny Shern, general manager at robot builder NexCOBOT, told PYMNTS this month that humanoid robots face more complex challenges than industrial robots.

“Traditional industrial robotic arms with vision systems primarily rely on preprogrammed instructions to execute tasks,” she said. “This works well in factory environments where applications are repetitive and goal-oriented.”

However, “implementing humanoid robots into household settings is a more complex advancement because, unlike factories, household environments are highly dynamic, and tasks will vary significantly from one home to another,” Shern said.

When dealing with unpredictable settings, humanoid robots need AI to function effectively in everyday life because preprogrammed instructions aren’t sufficient.

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