Technology

UK - A British woman suffering from motor neurone disease who lost her ability to speak is once again talking in her own voice thanks to artificial intelligence and a barely audible eight-second clip from an old home video.

Sarah Ezekiel, an artist, was left without the use of her voice after she was diagnosed at the age of 34, with MND while pregnant with her second child, 25 years ago.

The condition, which progressively damages parts of the nervous system, can cause weakness of the tongue, mouth and throat muscles, leading some sufferers to lose their speech completely.

In the years after her diagnosis, Ezekiel, from north London, was able to use a computer and voice-generating technology to help her communicate, albeit in a voice that sounded nothing like her own.

She was also able to continue her career as an artist using a computer cursor to create her images.

But her two children, Aviva and Eric, grew up never knowing how their mother had once spoken.

In recent years, experts have increasingly been able to use technology to create computerised versions of a person’s original voice.

But the technique has generally required long and good quality recordings and even then tended to produce voices that while sounding something like the sufferer, were “very flat and monotone”, said Simon Poole of the UK medical communication company Smartbox.

Poole told AFP the firm had originally asked Ezekiel for an hour’s worth of audio.People who are expected to lose their ability to speak due to conditions like MND are currently encouraged to record their voice as soon as possible as a way of preserving their ‘identity’ alongside their ability to communicate.

Sarah Ezekiel, an artist, was left without the use of her voice after she was diagnosed at the age of 34 with MND. (Pic: The Citizen)