Old VHS tape held only recording of their mom’s voice. Now AI is helping them finally hear mama — in her own voice
When Sarah first heard her original voice after years, she was emotional and she said she felt like crying.
Sarah Ezekiel was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in April 2000, while she was pregnant with her second baby, Eric. Soon after, she lost her ability to speak and later had to rely on a computer that gave her a robotic voice, BBC reported. So, naturally, her kids grew up, now knowing what their mom really sounded like, but everything changed when an old VHS tape helped Sarah get back her voice after 25 years.
"I felt very isolated and was struggling to communicate, and with my carols, too. It was a very difficult time, but things did improve greatly when I could use a computer," Sarah conveyed through the device. She wasn't exactly happy with the monotonous, machine voice, but at least her life was relatively easy, as she could now communicate with her family. Once, when Sarah's family stumbled upon a short 8-second VHS clip showing her chatting with Aviva, her daughter, they knew they could use it to get her original voice back. Her family shared the clip with Smartbox, an assistive technology company, where the real magic happened. Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts isolated her voice from the background noise and then reconstructed it. "Despite it not being perfect, that is good enough for an AI voice creation tool to work with. It just needs a small sample of your voice, and then it knows what your voice normally sounds like, and it can fine-tune its model to sound like your voice," Simon Poole of Smartbox told the BBC.
When Sarah first heard her original voice after years, she was emotional and she said she felt like crying. For her kids, it was a similar feeling, too. "It's taken me a while to process it, but really, hearing it in the house, it's made me really happy and quite emotional," Sarah's daughter said. "She's here; we can hear her. We can feel who she was as a person," she added. On the other hand, Eric, Sarah's son, said, "The best thing about her new voice is how much emotion comes through and how it is so much clearer what Mom is feeling, what she's trying to get across, and what mood she is in." The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 1.3 billion people, which is about 16% of the global population, are experiencing significant disability, and just imagine how difficult it must be for them to face challenges almost every single minute. But, now, just like Sarah, AI has fortunately been helping such people live and enjoy life beyond their limitations, especially while at work. In fact, 55% of people with disabilities are using AI for problem-solving at work, according to Randstad's report.
Moreover, the study also found that nearly a third (29%) of people with disabilities would even consider leaving their job if AI upskilling opportunities aren’t provided. Meanwhile, reacting to the beautiful story, @aparajitasuman9727 commented, "This is actually a great application of AI for the betterment of humanity. My best wishes, Sarah!" @manahil558 wrote, "Absolutely Beautiful! I'm happy for Sarah! Hope more people benefit from this use of AI!" @dorgpoop wrote, "The way we talk is such a big part of our character. I can see how having to talk with a robot voice would feel dehumanizing, so it's great that this technology can help people."
Echoing the sentiments, @oldworldhandyman commented, "Lovely family; hopefully one day AI and scientists will be able to cure this syndrome as well." @donaldlancon said, "OK, that's impressive. Turning that low-quality 8-second clip into a 'full,' normal-sounding voice? Pretty incredible."
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