A neurological disease stole Rep. Jennifer Wexton's voice. AI helped her get it back.

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Wexton spoke on the House floor Wednesday using an 'augmentative and alternative communication' program.

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"I can no longer give the same kind of impassioned impromptu speeches during debates on the floor or in committee hearings," Wexton said using assistive technology."This very impressive AI recreation of my voice does the public speaking for me now." ElevenLabs, a software company that works to create natural-sounding speech synthesis, reached out to Wexton’s office with the goal of making a voice model program that sounded like herself, and not the robotic voice associated with the traditional text-to-speech app.

“I used to be one of those people who hated the sound of my voice. When my ads came on TV, I would cringe and change the channel. But you truly don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,” she said on the House floor Thursday morning. “Because hearing the new AI of my old voice for the first time was music to my ears. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard and I cried tears of joy.

 

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Rep. Wexton, confronting degenerative disease, finds her voice through AIThe congresswoman from Virginia debuted a new, natural-sounding voice powered by artificial intelligence as her own voice is weakened by disease.
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