Neuralink 发布 VOICE 试验视频，展示 ALS 患者用脑信号合成语音

The third participant in VOICE, who is an ALS patient. Courtesy of Seize Team

“I need help filing an insurance claim.”

Terry explains his situation to a call center agent. But the agent cannot understand him and asks, “Could you say that in another way?” For Terry, whose pronunciation has become unclear due to ALS, even asking for help over the phone is not easy.

On September 19, U.S. neurotechnology company Neuralink, co-founded by Elon Musk, released a video about its speech restoration clinical trial ‘VOICE.’ The video features Terry, an ALS patient and the third participant in VOICE.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease in which motor neurons are damaged, making it difficult to move, speak, and breathe. Terry, who had risen to an executive position at his company, quit the work he loved after being diagnosed with ALS. His wife Lori described him as “an extrovert who really loves to talk.”

As part of Neuralink’s research, Terry received an implanted chip in his brain. The research team designed the system to detect the neural signals generated when the patient tries to speak and output them as speech. In the video, a researcher points to the screen and explains that it is showing brain signals in real time.

When Terry says, with unclear pronunciation, “Hello. How are you?” the computer reads his neural signals and displays the words on the screen. Then the same sentence is played back as synthesized speech through a speaker. Watching this, Lori says, “You just got your voice back.”

“Neuralink gave me my voice back.”

Speaking through the computer, Terry also shares his feelings with his wife. When Lori asks, “Is there something you want to say to me?” Terry nods. After counting “3, 2, 1,” the audio begins to play.

“I love you.”

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