PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Johan Schalkwyk

Johan Schalkwyk is a speech researcher and engineer whose work runs from Google Voice Search to the audio side of Gemini. He joined Google's New York development centre as a senior staff engineer in 2005, and he built Google Voice Search in 2008. In 2023 he co-authored Google USM, a speech recognition model for more than 100 languages, and he was listed as the MM Audio lead for Gemini 1.0. In 2025 he moved from Sesame to Meta, where he had been technical lead for Maya. He oversees the PlayAI team at Meta, a role he has held since 2025.

Now at
Meta
Works
73

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2005

    A senior engineer in New York

    He joins Google's New York development centre as a senior staff engineer in 2005.

  2. 2008

    Google Voice Search

    In 2008 he builds Google Voice Search, the first search-by-voice experience in the world.

  3. By 2011

    Running Google's voice group

    By 2011 he manages Google's voice group at its New York offices. He is responsible for developing the core technology that makes voice search work.

  4. 2023

    Google USM and Gemini 1.0

    In 2023 he co-authors Google USM, a speech recognition model for more than 100 languages. He is listed as the MM Audio lead in the Gemini 1.0 paper.

  5. 2024

    Speech area tech lead at Google

    In 2024 he is Google's Speech Area Tech Lead, and he helps Google DeepMind with multimodal perception and large language model efforts.

  6. 2025

    From Sesame to Meta

    In 2025 he joins Meta from Sesame, where he was technical lead for Maya. He is a former Google Fellow.

  7. Since 2025

    The PlayAI team at Meta

    The PlayAI team joins Meta under his leadership in 2025.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Johan Schalkwyk yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. The man behind Google's voice tech itweb.co.za. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Innovation Forum - 2024 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing 2024.ieeeicassp.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. Speak and you shall find timeslive.co.za. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. Google USM: Scaling Automatic Speech Recognition Beyond 100 Languages arxiv.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. Gemini: A Family of Highly Capable Multimodal Models arxiv.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. Here Is Everyone Mark Zuckerberg Has Hired So Far for Meta’s ‘Superintelligence’ Team | WIRED wired.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  7. Meta Acquires Voice Generation Start-Up PlayAI to Boost its AI Ambitions – Outlook Business outlookbusiness.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  8. Meta reportedly closes deal to buy AI voice replicator PlayAI engadget.com. Checked 15 October 2026.