“AI Gave Me My Voice Back” Chapter 110
Two years ago was the last time anyone heard my voice coming out of my own mouth, and it’s been even longer - another 6 months, in fact - since my speech was clear and intelligible.
If there’s one thing I miss the most, it’s being able to use my voice.
Imagine yourself preparing for a very important briefing, when you come down with a cold or laryngitis. How will you give the briefing? If you struggle through the briefing or have someone else deliver the content for you, you will lose the warmth, personality, and inflection that go hand in hand with conveying your point and delivering the message. In the end, you only need a few days and you will have your voice back to call a mulligan and do it again.
Now imagine you are giving your daughter away on her wedding day, and at the reception you give a speech, and the only voice you have available to you is a lifeless digital voice from a box. My daughter shed more tears over not being able to hear my voice that day than any other part of the wedding. Or imagine leaving a job you loved because you lost the ability to communicate effectively. This was my reality, but maybe things could have gone completely different if I'd had a program that used my own voice to communicate.
When I ask fellow Patients with ALS (PALS) what is one of the most important function you don’t want to lose? Their voice/ability to speak is almost always on the top of the list. This also applies to families and friends when asked, what do you miss the most about their PALS. .
Fortunately, for those who have the opportunity to do so, voice banking before completely losing use of their vocal cord from either a trach or muscle deterioration is very possible. In fact, there are great companies and even nonprofits to help. However, for those like myself who lost their voices before knowing about voice banking, we were stuck using programmed voices.
BUT, THERE IS A SOLUTION. Don’t get me wrong,... my eye gaze voice is Darius, and while we’ve been through a lot, he gotsta GO!
In a post I wrote last year, I posed the question about using AI to regenerate my voice. Shortly after, God answered it and connected me with a new friend Stephanie, who just so happened to work in the AI space. We were discussing a different topic when I asked, “Do you know if there’s any companies able to recreate my voice from old videos so that my eye gaze system is more me?” On that day, like Barney from the tv show How I Met Your Mother, Stephanie responded with a no, but also.... a "Challenge Accepted!” We had three parameters. The solution had to be easy to collect the video/audio files, maintain quality of the voice, and have the ability to be utilized with the eye gaze system.
Over the next several weeks we searched high and low for a company or a program to do what we needed. We could not find anything, not even an article online. There were plenty of companies using voice banking, but nothing using your OWN videos in order to have access to YOUR real voice. Three months later and Stephanie found a company called “WellSaid,” who was willing to give it a try. I collected every video I had on my devices and social channels. All together it was around 45 minutes and it took a long time to collect. The goal was to find 2 hours or more so the AI program could develop the best voice possible. Once the files were submitted it took another 4 more months or so to get the voice fully figured out. Up until this point, I hadn't told anyone in my family. The first time Laura learned about my secret project was late this past July when Stephanie and I set up a Zoom call with her, under the pretense that I needed help for a class. When Laura first heard the voice - MY voice - she was both surprised and shocked. It was actually me!
Two weeks later my family and I were at an ALS event when we met the WellSaid project manager, and she provided more examples of my AI voice for us. The results were exactly what I had hoped for - a voice so good they would cry. The only thing left was to get the voice onto my eye gaze system. Unfortunately three months later, we were informed that they couldn’t do it. In the meantime, Stephanie and I started looking for a solution. Ten months in and we were so close, but still too far. Throughout the process when we would get frustrated and feel up against a wall, but I would tell her, “Don’t worry. God will provide and we have time. I am not going anywhere.” Every time we agreed and prayed on it, and every time our prayers were answered.
Hearing my voice for the first time.
In November, eleven months after our first conversation, we cracked the nut, or I should say, we found the RIGHT nut. I was given a name and number to call Bridging Voice and Eleven Labs.. I passed it along to Stephanie, who set up a zoom meeting with Nachum, the Founder of Bridging Voice. They exceeded all three of our original criteria and more. Nachum said they could create my voice with as little as one minute of Visio, but more more content is better. Let me tell you, Nachum and his team are the best. In just one month they corrected some problems with controlling my wheelchair, recommended and helped install new software, and next week - after 2 ½ years I will have my voice back.
I would never want anyone to have to wait a year or endure the same process I had to. But you, too, can contact Bridging Voice and tell them I sent you. No, I don’t get anything in return, but I do wonder how many PALS this will help. The process should not take more than a month for you now.
It’s my hope you get your voice back too, and if you have to give your daughter away the only reason she cries is because she is hearing your voice.
Love and Blessings
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Still a soldier! So many PALS. can now benefit from your tenacity. Well done, bro. Very well done.
You are amazing and truly inspiring ! There are so many ways you have and will continue to support , guide and help PALS and you are creatively turning back the clock to move forward!
Thanks so much for all you have done and will continue to do to make life a little more authentic to each person!
Continued love and prayers
Keep fighting the good fight my friend !
I can't thank you enough for sharing this information. My husband didn't get a chance to bank his voice and I have been searching for someone who can us AI to do it. Thank you so very much.
What incredible persistence! Congratulations. Do you mind breaking down some of the costs you incurred? I can think of a few others who would be interested if it were a reasonable investment.
This is dope my dude! You are kicking ass. I stan and aspire.