AI Brings Congresswoman’s Voice Back After Rare Disease
Lindsey Mastis spoke with an official with ElevenLabs, the group that created Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton's AI voice.
FULL STORY: https://www.wjla.com/news/local/artif...
WASHINGTON — It’s not often the benefits of voice cloning are center stage, but it’s a technology that is extremely helpful for people who have lost their voices.
U.S. Representative Jennifer Wexton (VA-10) is one of those people."Hearing the new AI (artificial intelligence) of my old voice for the first time was music to my ears, she said on the House floor using an AI voice in July.
"It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard and I cried tears of joy."Rep. Wexton lost her voice to Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a form of Parkinson's Disease. She announced she would not seek re-election because of the condition.
Wexton now uses technology developed by New York-based company ElevenLabs. 7News’ Lindsey Mastis covers AI and spoke with Dustin Blank, the Head of Partnerships at ElevenLabs.
“We literally reached out to her team,” Blank said. “To be able to say, 'Congresswoman Wexton, we can not only help you communicate in your own voice to your constituents and to your team and to your family in the way that you have been used to doing your whole life, but we can do it in a matter of 24 hours.' They were ecstatic.”
The quality of the AI voice improves with better and longer voice samples, which was easy to get from Rep. Wexton because of her many previous speeches on the House floor and public appearances.All ElevenLabs needed was a minimum of 30 minutes of audio.
There is a process of voice verification, another guardrail Blank said the company set up is prohibiting voices, like those of presidential candidates, from being cloned.
There is a free version of the program, and also a subscription for higher-quality voice cloning. Blank said ElevenLabs wants to make sure that technology is available to those who need it the most.
“ElevenLabs is committed to giving away and helping one million people reclaim their voices through our impact program,”Blank said.
Blank said they’re partnering with two organizations to identify people with ALS around the world and give them lifetime access to the software.
Click HERE to learn more about that program.