Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking’s computer gets a glow up

Stephen Hawking changed the world’s expectations for assistive communication when he began speaking through a computer on his wheelchair. This article by the Daily Mail explores what the next leap looks like: AI that can help people with degenerative diseases communicate through a life-like digital version of themselves, not just a robotic voice. The concept is a two-screen setup mounted to a wheelchair, where the user interacts with a screen in front of them, and their words appear as a speaking avatar on a screen above.

The piece describes how the avatar is designed to look and sound like the user, capturing their face, voice, and expressive cues like emotion, tone, and inflection. It also suggests the system can be trained on personal context so it responds in a way that feels authentic to the individual. In conversation, a microphone listens to the exchange, the AI generates three possible responses, and the user selects one using eye-tracking—aiming to keep up with the natural rhythm of dialogue in just a few seconds.

The article introduces the software as SMF VoXAI, driven by the Scott-Morgan Foundation and architected via eye-tracking by SMF chief technologist Bernard Muller, who is fully paralysed with ALS. It highlights the scale of unmet need for people with severe speech limitations, and positions this approach as a step toward broader access. It also notes VoXAI was created in partnership with D-ID, which contributed the avatar technology, alongside ElevenLabs for voice and Nvidia hardware, and is being developed with the goal of making the software available for free while the team works toward a scalable hardware setup.