When British roboticist Dr Peter Scott-Morgan was diagnosed with ALS in 2017, he was told that the disease would gradually take away his voice, his movements and, ultimately, his place in the world. But he refused to accept the idea that loss of speech should mean loss of identity. As his body weakened, Scott-Morgan turned to technology, trying to integrate voice, visual links and avatar-based communication. His public conversion led him to be described as the world’s first “a human cyborg,” but the label hides a deeper desire: to redefine how disability and technologies like AI can evolve together.
After his death in 2022, the Scott-Morgan Foundation (SMF) continued his work. The organization began translating Scott-Morgan’s philosophy of dignity-by-design into real-world technology. One of those efforts came from Bernard Muller, a technology specialist for the Foundation, who is completely paralyzed by ALS. Muller began building and developing what would become VoXAI.
“I built VoxAI letter by letter with my own eyes. It’s slow, it’s hard work, but if your need is real, you just keep going,” Muller told the Observer, in response to the VoXAI program. “I used AI agents as my ‘extra hands,’ breaking tasks down into small steps, testing, refining and letting automation do what my body could no longer do. Previous tools were less intelligent and basically limited to writing letters—helpful, but not empowering.”
ALS currently affects tens of thousands of people in the US and hundreds of thousands around the world. As the condition progresses, 95 percent of patients eventually lose the ability to speak naturally. Available solutions are often expensive and incomplete. High-end Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices—especially those that require specialized hardware such as eye tracking—typically cost between $10,000 and $15,000. For decades, that barrier has left millions speechless, dependent on systems that soften emotions and erase identity.
VoXAI was presented last week at the AI Conference in New York. It is the product of a collaboration between Israel’s AI startup D-ID, voice AI company ElevenLabs, Irisbond, Lenovo, Nvidia and several academic partners. D-ID’s real-time avatar engine animates facial expressions, micro-emotions and natural mouth movements; Irisbond hardware enables precise control of eye tracking; ElevenLabs’ voice synthesis recreates the user’s pre-illness voice; Nvidia GPUs provide the real-time AI performance needed for the new zero-latency; and Lenovo provides a robust hardware environment that keeps the system stable and affordable.
Founded in 2017 in Israel, D-ID was first recognized for its privacy technology and became a pioneer in AI video production in 2019. Its systems now power digital presenters, learning companions and interactive avatars for Fortune 500 companies and public institutions.
“When it comes to disability, the biggest blind spot is thinking it’s too small or niche to be commercially important,” Gil Perry, founder and CEO of D-ID, told the Observer. “We believe that a clear, real-time digital presence is becoming a new layer of communications infrastructure, and accessibility is where that value is most clear and most urgent.”
“For some people, an expressive presence is a benefit; for others, it’s a way of life,” added Perry. “Healthcare and assistive technology providers need a reliable avatar layer that can plug into their systems and make interactions feel truly human to those who matter most to them.”
At its core, VoXAI is built on a simple yet transformative idea: assistive technology should not just generate words on behalf of the user; it should help them express their feelings.
Leah Stavenhagen, an ALS advocate and early VoXAI participant, said the hardest part of losing her speech is the invisibility that comes with it. He recently started using the tool as a beta tester and showed his digital image on stage during the first public session at the AI Summit.
“When communication takes 30 seconds to a few minutes for every response, conversations don’t wait. By the time you get your thoughts together, the topic has already moved on,” he told the Observer, in response to the VoXAI program. “People stop asking complex questions and start talking about ‘you’ instead of ‘to you.'”
To communicate, users interact with a screen placed in front of them with an eye-tracking device. As the conversation continues around them, the microphone captures what others are saying, and the AI quickly combines three possible answers. The user selects one by moving their eyes. Once selected, the avatar—displayed on a screen above the user or on a connected device—delivers immediate feedback through the user’s voice, complete with facial expressions and expressions. The avatar continues to learn through ongoing interactions, engaging preferences, social cues and personal history. The goal is to maintain the personal continuity that many people lose as their illness progresses.
“When someone first sees his picture or hears his voice, there’s often a moment of respect because you’re giving back something that was lost,” LaVonne Roberts, CEO of the Scott-Morgan Foundation, told the Observer.
Assistive communication technology has long been described as illegal. SMF is trying to scale that model by offering VoXAI for free in the basic tier, with advanced features available for a $30 monthly subscription.
“Identity preservation is going to be a phase of its own. Voice integration is here now, but we’re moving towards full digital identity where your voice, what you say, your communication patterns are saved and protected,” said Roberts. “Surrounding AI systems that listen and respond to context without explicit instructions will revolutionize care, elder care, and provide more independence for people living with mobility limitations.”
