A neurological disorder stole his voice. Jennifer Wexton takes the matter back to the House floor.

When Jennifer Wexton stands up Thursday to speak on the House floor, something she has done countless times before, the congresswoman will use a voice she thought was gone forever.

After a rare neurological disorder robbed him of his ability to speak clearly, Wexton regained his voice with the help of a powerful artificial intelligence program, allowing the Virginia Democrat to make a clone of his voice using old recordings of speeches and appearances. she did as a congresswoman. She will use this program to deliver what is believed to be the first speech on the House floor delivered through a voice cloned by artificial intelligence.

“It was a special moment that I never imagined would happen. I cried tears of joy when I first heard it,” Wexton told the Associated Press in the first interview she has participated in since getting her new voice.

Wexton’s voice played on her iPad, supported by a rainbow-colored floral case on the dining table in Leesburg, Virginia. The congresswoman types her thoughts, uses a pen to move the text, presses play, and then the AI ​​program puts that text into Wexton’s voice. It’s a time-consuming process, so the AP provided Wexton with some questions before the interview to give the congresswoman time to type up her answers.

Wexton was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy in 2023, an aggressive neurological disorder that affects many aspects of life, including speech. Sitting in front of a sideboard full of photos that mark the highlights of her personal life – weddings, family trips, children -, the deputy called the diagnosis “cruel” for someone whose “entire professional life was built around the use of my voice”, from Virginia Prosecutor, state senator and member of Congress.

“A politician who cannot speak in public will soon be an ex-politician. But this AI voice model has given me a new opportunity to make my voice heard and reminds listeners that I am still me,” said Wexton.

The deputy, whose runaway victory in 2018 signaled the success that the Democrats would have that year, initially announced a diagnosis of Parkinson’s in April 2023, striking an upbeat tone by telling supporters they were “welcome to empathize” with her but not to “feel sorry for me.” Her the tone in September 2023 was very different: She described her PSP diagnosis as “Parkinson on steroids” and said she would not seek re-election in 2024.

“This new diagnosis is difficult. There is no ‘getting better’ with the PSP. I will continue with treatment options to manage my symptoms, but they do not work as well with my condition as they do with Parkinson’s,” she said at the time.

The diagnosis changed Wexton’s personal and professional life. The congresswoman doesn’t look like she used to. Her posture fell, her movements less precise, her natural voice muffled – all impacts of the disease. As it became more difficult for Wexton to use her voice, she turned to a traditional text-to-speech app that many people with speech disorders often use. The voice sounded more like a robot than a human, but Wexton used it to conduct interviews and give speeches.

ElevenLabs, a start-up with one of the most widely used AI-based voice cloning models, saw Wexton speak using the older technology. They contacted her office several weeks ago and Wexton’s aides provided the company with several recordings, mostly speeches she gave as a member of Congress.

“Our technology gives people who have lost their voice the ability to speak as they once did, with the emotion and passion they feel, and we hoped to help the congresswoman do just that,” said Dustin Blank, the company’s head of partnerships. “She is an incredible public servant and an outstanding leader for people with disabilities.”

Wexton said he first used the cloned voice to speak to President Joe Biden in the Oval Office earlier this month when he signed the National Plan to End Parkinson’s Disease, a bill Wexton called “the action most important step we have taken in decades to combat Parkinson’s.” and related illnesses, like my PSP.” A few days later, Wexton publicly debuted his cloned voice in a video, generating a wave of support and pushing the congresswoman into a debate on artificial intelligence.

“This was never a situation I imagined myself in” and “it’s not the way I thought I would leave Congress,” she said. “I didn’t expect to be at the forefront of a debate about the future of AI.”

Using AI-powered cloning to give Wexton his voice back is one of the positive applications of this technology. However, voice cloning has also been used in nefarious ways, such as defrauding people and spreading false political messages. The most notable of these cases was when a AI-Generated Robocall Impersonating President Joe Biden urged voters ahead of the New Hampshire primary not to vote. The call was quickly reported and resulted in serious consequences for those behind it, but the incident raised serious questions about the future of this technology and the companies behind it.

Wexton, whose district is home to several data centers that power AI, is also home to these issues. After she debuted her voice clone, Wexton jokingly texted some friends the same message: “The AI ​​isn’t all bad, just mostly.”

Hany Farid, a professor and digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said Wexton’s example is the exception to the numerous nefarious uses of voice cloning technology.

“I found it really moving… and I’m completely in favor of this candidacy,” he said. “But I just want to emphasize that just because there are these really beautiful stories… doesn’t mean we should just ignore the nasty things with these technologies.”

One way to ensure technology is used for good, Farid said, is “better checks and balances” to ensure “people aren’t doing nefarious things with their products.” These include content credentials that indicate how the audio was developed, storage of all audio created using the technology, and know-your-customer rules that require voice cloning companies to know who is using their technology.

Wexton agrees that more guardrails are needed. His team of advisors took precautions to ensure his image was protected, limiting voice access to just three people and tightening the program’s security.

“It’s humanizing and empowering. It can also be dangerous,” she said of her new voice. “I still believe that the dangerous potential of AI technology must be better understood and steps must be taken to prevent the proliferation of abuses of the technology, such as deepfakes, and part of this falls on policymakers like us in Congress,” she later added.

In 2019, Wexton received bipartisan approval for an amendment directing the National Science Foundation to research public awareness about AI-generated deepfake videos.

Wexton also said the technology isn’t perfect. Because the audio used came from speeches and public events, it’s not great for normal conversations, often making everything sound “like a big proclamation.” Her two college-age sons, she said, don’t like it for that reason and, she joked, she doesn’t use it to “ask my husband to pass me the ketchup,” demonstrating what a sense of humor she is. known on Capitol Hill.

“At the end of the day, it will never be me. But it’s more me than I could ever hope to hear again, and for that I’m so grateful and excited,” she said. “I intend to make the most of it.”

For doctors like Jori Fleisher, Director of Rush CurePSP Call CenterThis feeling is why this type of technology can alter the lives of those diagnosed with the rare neurological disorder.

PSP patients often lose their voice and rely on traditional speech-to-text programs to communicate, Fleisher said. But these programs use robotic voices that often sound nothing like those of patients. Fleisher notes that people with “neurological illnesses are already stigmatized,” so speaking with a voice that sounds like a computer “perpetuates the stigma” and often causes them to withdraw from relationships and “worsens the social isolation that can be a big problem.” part of these conditions.”

“Knowing and already deeply respecting Congresswoman Wexton and then hearing her speak so beautifully in her own voice, using her own words through this technology, is giving me goosebumps right now,” she said, becoming increasingly emotional. “It’s so empowering.”

The key, Fleisher added, is making this technology available to more people, encouraging patients in the early stages of PSP and other neurological disorders to “accumulate enough sounds of their own voice that they can be used later” and so that insurance companies cover this. type of treatment. Wexton said he tried to do this late last year through an Apple program, but his voice was already too affected by the disease to be used by the AI.

“This is an aspect of care and quality of life that could be drastically improved and should be covered by a person’s insurance. If speech therapy is covered, as it should be, this is an extension of that,” she said. “That’s…helping them be whole.”

Wexton’s new voice particularly helps in more emotional moments, when hearing the feeling in his speech is significantly more powerful than a more robotic sound. When asked how Barbara Comstock, the Republican congresswoman Wexton has grown close to since he defeated her in 2018, has helped support her since Wexton revealed her diagnosis, the Democrat became emotional and said, “She’s been so kind.”

“I was thrilled for her,” Comstock said, remembering when he first heard Wexton’s AI voice. “It’s great to know that she is putting her literal voice out there so others can see the power of technology. … I’m getting tears in my eyes thinking about this again.”

After defeating Comstock in 2018, Wexton’s future in Virginia politics was bright, with many in the state speculating that she might run for higher office. Her diagnosis took away that future — her political career will end next year — but it gave Wexton new determination.

“I want to be a voice, even an AI voice, for Americans who face accessibility challenges and other disabilities, because often people only see us because of that disability,” Wexton said. “I hope that by continuing to do my job to the best of my ability, whether that means using a walker or a wheelchair to get to the House floor to vote or delivering my speeches through an AI-recreated version of my voice, It can help show that I’m just as much myself inside as I’ve always been.”

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