In April 2021 I underwent vocal cord surgery. I knew that for a few days, maybe weeks, I would not be able to speak. So before the operation I decided to have my voice cloned.
That is, I decided to sample it and transform it into software capable of speaking for me through artificial intelligence. It was a pioneering thing behind which there was a serial innovator, Marco Trombetti, who twenty years ago together with his wife founded a company that has become a world leader in translations assisted by artificial intelligence. Trombetti was passionate about the potential opened up by the artificial reproduction of the voice and at the time he imagined a platform where, for example, he could find the most suitable voice for dubbing or for a podcast.
A new market in which to launch your own startup. The sampling of my voice went very well and I told about it on Repubblica. Pino Insegno, a very successful actor and voice actor, read that article. For some time he had been looking for an instrument through which he could give the voice to those who have lost it due to an illness and Trombetti’s platform seemed made for it. Less than two years have passed and yesterday “Voice for Purpose” was launched, to give the voice back to all ALS patients. Theirs or, if they have already lost it, their own too, by donating it.
The news
With 3 seconds of our voice the AI will make us say things we never said
by Pier Luigi Pisa
It’s incredibly simple: you can do everything online, in a short time, just speak and register for half an hour to get the sampling and ensure that any text is then read by that same voice. Trombetti says: “Patients cry with joy when they understand that they will not lose their voice”. It is the profound meaning of innovation: trying to make the world better every day, improving people’s lives.