At a glance
Project Revoice is a non-profit initiative from the ALS Association that uses deep learning voice cloning to rebuild a person's unique voice from recorded speech, then connects that voice to the eye controlled communication devices many ALS patients rely on. It proved the concept in 2018 by recreating the voice of Pat Quinn, co-founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge, who had already lost his speech entirely.
- ALS, also known as Motor Neurone Disease, progressively paralyzes the muscles used for speech, and up to 90 percent of people with ALS eventually rely on augmentative and alternative communication devices
- The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge united 17 million people and raised 115 million dollars for the ALS Association
- Pat Quinn, who co-founded the challenge, had never banked his voice, yet researchers cloned it from old interview footage
- Modern voice banking needs as little as 3 minutes of recording on an iPhone to build a usable personal voice
- Team Gleason covers voice banking costs for people with ALS in the United States
Project Revoice is a non-profit initiative from the ALS Association that uses deep learning to rebuild the voice of a person with ALS and connect it to the communication devices they use after the disease takes away their speech. It matters because voice is identity. When ALS silences someone, generic computer speech can restore the words but not the person behind them. Revoice fixes that, and it proved the idea in the most poetic way imaginable: by giving the co-founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge his own voice back after he had already lost it.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Motor Neurone Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that attacks the nerve cells controlling voluntary muscle movement. Almost everyone with ALS eventually develops a motor speech disorder. Research published by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association reports that up to 90 percent of people living with ALS come to rely on augmentative and alternative communication, known as AAC, to meet their daily communication needs. That usually means a synthetic voice that sounds like everyone else's device.
The Man Who Gave ALS a Voice
In the summer of 2014, Pat Quinn helped launch the Ice Bucket Challenge alongside Pete Frates and Anthony Senerchia. The stunt united 17 million people across 159 countries and raised 115 million dollars for the ALS Association, funding a wave of research including new gene discoveries. Quinn, a young man from Yonkers, New York, had been diagnosed with ALS in 2013. He became one of the most recognizable advocates in the history of the disease.
Then ALS took his voice. By 2017 Quinn communicated through an eye tracking computer speaking with a generic synthetic voice. He had never recorded or banked his speech before losing it, which was considered an unrecoverable loss. Voice cloning systems needed hours of clean, purposeful recordings that no longer existed.
Cloning a Voice From Old Interviews
In 2018 the ALS Association, working with the agency dentsu and technologists including the team behind what was then called Lyrebird, set out to change that. Instead of studio recordings, they mined old Ice Bucket Challenge interviews and television appearances. A deep learning algorithm analyzed the DNA of Quinn's voice from that footage and reconstructed a complete digital clone. The team then built a custom interface so the new voice could run on the same eye tracking computer Quinn already used.
The moment Quinn first spoke again in his own voice was captured on film, and he later said the technology gave him back a vital piece of himself that had been missing. Before hearing the clone, he admitted he often avoided conversations because he disliked his computer voice so much. That single detail captures why this work is about far more than convenience. A voice you hide is a self you hide.
The campaign around Project Revoice reached more than 900 million people, with 41 million joining the conversation on social media, according to dentsu. But the lasting impact was not the advertisement. It was the normalization of voice banking as a standard part of ALS care.
Voice Banking for Everyone
The technology has moved quickly since 2018. Project Revoice now guides patients to a growing menu of voice banking options including Model Talker, Acapela MyOwnVoice, VocaliD, CereProc, and The Voice Keeper. The effort involved has collapsed. Older systems asked for seven hours of scripted reading. Today The Voice Keeper can produce a basic personal voice from about 3 minutes of recording on an iPhone, processed in roughly 7 minutes, and the voice improves with every additional 100 sentences spoken. Acapela supports 13 languages, extending the possibility beyond English speakers.
Cost, historically the biggest barrier, is being dismantled too. Insurance in the United States does not cover voice banking, and packages range from around 100 dollars to nearly 1,500 dollars. But Team Gleason, the non-profit founded by former NFL player Steve Gleason, who lives with ALS himself, covers these costs for people with ALS in the United States. Free microphones and guided programs are available through ALS Association chapters. The guidance from clinicians is now blunt and urgent: do not wait. Bank your voice while you still have it.
Why a Cloned Voice Matters
Every synthesized voice that sounds personal restores more than sound. Children of a parent with ALS get to keep hearing the voice that read them bedtime stories. Spouses keep the voice that said their name. The patient keeps a signature, a sense of humor, a way of being recognized in a crowd even when the disease has taken nearly everything else.
There is a lesson here for the entire debate about AI voice cloning. The same technology that powers scams and deepfakes can, pointed at the right problem, return something a person is actively losing. The difference is consent and purpose. Project Revoice clones only the voice of the person who owns it, only for their use, and only because a disease is taking it away. It is one of the cleanest cases of AI as pure restitution.
Quinn passed away in 2019, but his cloned voice had already done its work, proving to the ALS community that a diagnosis no longer means surrendering the sound of yourself. A disease can take the muscles. The machines are now fast enough, cheap enough, and kind enough to keep the voice.
Common Questions
What is Project Revoice?
Project Revoice is a non-profit initiative launched by the ALS Association in 2018 with the goal of ensuring that no one living with ALS is robbed of their voice. It uses deep learning voice cloning to rebuild a person's unique voice from recordings and connect it to augmentative and alternative communication devices.
Whose voice was cloned first for Project Revoice?
The first voice recreated was Pat Quinn's, co-founder of the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge. Quinn had lost his speech to ALS and never banked his voice, so researchers cloned it using audio from his old Ice Bucket Challenge interviews and appearances, then delivered it through his eye tracking computer.
How much recording is needed to clone a voice today?
Modern systems vary. The Voice Keeper can build a basic personal voice from about 3 minutes of iPhone recording processed in roughly 7 minutes, improving with every additional 100 sentences. Older systems like Model Talker asked for several hours of scripted reading, with a minimum of 400 sentences.
How many people with ALS lose their ability to speak?
Almost everyone with ALS develops a motor speech disorder as the disease progresses, and research cited by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association reports that up to 90 percent of people living with ALS eventually rely on augmentative and alternative communication devices to meet daily communication needs.
How much does voice banking cost?
Voice banking options range from roughly 100 dollars to 1,500 dollars depending on the provider, and insurance in the United States does not cover it. Team Gleason, a non-profit founded by former NFL player Steve Gleason, covers voice banking costs for people with ALS in the United States, and ALS Association chapters provide free microphones.
Sources: Project Revoice (projectrevoice.org); the ALS Association Ice Bucket Challenge records; ALS Association press release on Pat Quinn's cloned voice; dentsu Project Revoice case study; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association journals on AAC use in ALS; Les Turner ALS Foundation communication guide; NIH PMC research on communication support for people with ALS.
