The Challenge

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Motor Neurone Disease, is a progressive condition that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, leading to paralysis and the loss of speech. In 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge raised awareness and over $115 million for ALS research. Now, we continue that journey with Project Revoice, using AI to recreate ALS patients' voices and give them back their ability to communicate.

Up until now, the only way for people with ALS to communicate in their own voices is through a set of pre-recorded sentences (message banking) or words that have been mechanically stitched together using syllables from a bank of recorded words. Both these options are incredibly time-consuming for patients (sometimes up to 20 hours of recordings are needed); they limit the patients’ ability to express themselves, and the end result sounds unnatural. As a result, many patients end up using text-to-speech devices with a default proxy voice, in turn losing a huge part of their own identity and humanity.

The Solution

In collaboration with leading experts in machine learning and voice cloning technology, we created Project Revoice, a program that gives people with ALS/MND the ability to communicate freely in their own voice, even after they can no longer physically speak. Powered by a unique deep learning algorithm, the program can analyze the unique characteristics of a person's voice and create a complete digital voice clone from just a couple of hours of voice banking.To launch this life-changing program we recreated the voice of Ice Bucket co-founder and ALS sufferer Pat Quinn, who in the years since becoming the public face and voice of ALS was tragically robbed of his own voice. With just a few Ice Bucket interviews and speeches as raw material, we managed to rebuild Pat's voice and integrate it with his eye-tracking computer. We then captured and shared with the world the moment when he finally spoke again.

The Results

Since launch, Project Revoice has had an earned reach of more than 900 million, with 41 million people joining the conversation on social media. Most importantly, in the first month alone over 500 patients joined the program to receive their own Revoice.