Sonya Sotinsky recorded phrases, children’s stories, and even curse words before undergoing surgery to remove her tongue and voice box due to cancer. These recordings allowed her to retain her voice's essence and personality. Sotinsky expressed the profound frustration of losing her voice, feeling that it was critical to her identity. After her surgery, she took the initiative to find an AI company that could recreate her natural voice. The result is an app that enables her to communicate with her unique intonation once again.
When you can't use your voice, it is very, very frustrating. Other people project what they think your personality is. I have silently screamed and screamed at there being no scream.
Her unique intonation, cadence and slight New Jersey accent, she felt, were fingerprints of her identity. And she refused to be silenced.
Thinking about the grandchildren she desperately hoped to see born one day, she also recorded herself reading more than a dozen children's books, from 'Eloise' to Dr. Seuss, to one day play for them at bedtime.
While her doctors and insurance company saved her life, they showed little interest in saving her voice, she said. So she set out on her own to research and identify the artificial intelligence company that could.
#voice-preservation #cancer-survival #artificial-intelligence #personal-identity #emotional-expression
Collection
[
|
...
]