ALS stole this musician’s voice. AI let him sing again.

ALS Stole This Musician's Voice. AI Let Him Sing Again.

Patrick Darling's music career was cut short when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disease that affects the nerves that supply the body's muscles. As the disease progressed, Darling lost the ability to stand, play his instruments, and even speak. But thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), Darling has been able to re-create his lost voice and continue making music.

The Musician's Journey

Darling, a 32-year-old musician, was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 29. He had been a musician and composer since he was 14 years old, playing various instruments, including the bass guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, melodica, mandolin, and tenor banjo. His biggest love, however, was singing.

As Darling's symptoms worsened, he became increasingly dependent on his bandmates to carry him on stage. By April 2024, he was struggling to talk and breathe at the same time, and it was clear that his music career was coming to an end.

The Power of AI

In a bid to preserve Darling's voice, a speech therapist suggested "banking" his voice by recording him speaking and using those recordings to create speech sounds that could be activated with typed text. However, Darling's voice had already changed significantly due to the disease, making it difficult to create a usable voice clone.

Enter Richard Cave, a speech and language therapist and researcher at University College London, who introduced Darling to a different technology. Cave works with ElevenLabs, an AI company that develops agents and audio, speech, video, and music tools. One of these tools can create "voice clones" – realistic mimics of real voices that can be generated from minutes, or even seconds, of a person's recorded voice.

Re-creating the Voice

Cave worked with Darling to use the tool to re-create his lost speaking voice from older recordings. The first time Darling heard the voice clone, he was amazed by how realistic it sounded. "It sounded exactly like I had before, and you literally wouldn't be able to tell the difference," he said.

However, re-creating his singing voice wasn't as easy. The tool typically requires around 10 minutes of clear audio to generate a clone, and Darling had no high-quality recordings of himself singing. They had to use audio from videos on people's phones, shot in noisy pubs, and a couple of recordings of him singing in his kitchen. Still, those snippets were enough to create a "synthetic version of [Darling's] singing voice," says Cave.

The Music Continues

ElevenLabs has also developed an AI music generator called Eleven Music. The tool allows users to compose tracks, using text prompts to choose the musical style. Darling and Cave spent around six weeks fine-tuning Darling's song, using text prompts to create a track that sounded like his original music.

The song was played live at the ElevenLabs summit in London, with Darling on stage, accompanied by his bandmates on the mandolin and fiddle. The performance was a emotional moment for Darling and his bandmates, who had been working together for over a decade.

The Future of Music

The use of AI in music is still in its early stages, but it has the potential to revolutionize the industry. With tools like Eleven Music, musicians can create new music without having to physically play an instrument. This opens up new possibilities for people with disabilities, who may not be able to play music in the classical sense.

Moreover, AI-generated music can also be used to create new sounds and styles that were previously impossible to achieve. This can lead to new forms of expression and creativity, and can help to push the boundaries of what we consider to be "music."

Conclusion

Patrick Darling's story is a testament to the power of AI to transform lives. Despite being diagnosed with a debilitating disease, Darling has been able to continue making music thanks to the advancements in AI. His story highlights the potential of AI to enable people with disabilities to create and express themselves in new and innovative ways.

As AI continues to evolve and improve, we can expect to see even more exciting developments in the field of music. Whether it's creating new sounds, styles, or forms of expression, AI has the potential to revolutionize the music industry and open up new possibilities for musicians and music lovers alike.

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/13/1132913/als-stole-this-musicians-voice-ai-sing/