Veritone did not build one artificial intelligence. It built a switchboard for dozens of them. Its platform sent audio and video files to more than 40 engines from Google, IBM, Microsoft, Nuance and others, picked the best one for each job, and merged the results. Broadcasters used it to find every mention of a brand. Police used it to search body-camera footage. The Costa Mesa company went public in May 2017, years before AI became a household word.

Brothers Who Sold Radio Ads

Chad and Ryan Steelberg founded Veritone in 2014. The brothers had built ad tech companies before, including a radio advertising startup they sold to Google. Their new idea was that no single AI engine was best at everything. One might transcribe speech well, another might spot faces or logos. Veritone's platform, later called aiWARE, chose among them and charged customers through a software subscription. It also ran an advertising agency business that placed ads for brands on radio and podcasts.

Fifteen Dollars and a Hard Road

Veritone priced its IPO at $15 a share in May 2017 and listed on Nasdaq as VERI. The stock swung hard in the years that followed. The company sold its Veritone One advertising unit in October 2024 for up to $104 million. In June 2026 it began cutting at least a quarter of its workforce, and its shares traded near $1. Veritone still trades on Nasdaq.

Cover: Saint Jerome Listening to the Trumpet of the Last Judgment, Jusepe de Ribera. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a figure listening (AI that listens to audio and video).