Bernard Muller, CTO of The Scott-Morgan Foundation. Courtesy The Scott-Morgan Foundation
When British roboticist Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan was diagnosed with ALS in 2017, he was told the disease would gradually take his voice, his movement and, eventually, his place in the world. But he refused to accept the idea that losing speech should mean losing identity. As his body weakened, the Scott-Morgan turned to technology, experimenting with voice synthesis, gaze interfaces and avatar-based communication. His public transformation earned him the description of the world’s first “human cyborg,” but the label masked a deeper ambition: to redefine how disability and technologies like A.I. can evolve together.
Following his death in 2022, the Scott-Morgan Foundation (SMF) carried forward his mission. The organization began translating Scott-Morgan’s philosophy of dignity-by-design into real-world technology. One of those efforts took shape through Bernard Muller, the Foundation’s chief technologist, who is fully paralyzed by ALS. Muller began architecting and co-developing what would become VoXAI.
“I built VoxAI letter by letter with my eyes. It’s slow, it’s stubborn work, but when your need is real, you just keep going,” Muller told Observer, responding through the VoXAI system. “I used A.I. agents as my ‘extra hands,’ breaking tasks into small steps, testing, refining and letting automation do what my body no longer can. Earlier tools were less intelligent and basically limited to typing letters—useful, but hardly empowering.”
ALS currently affects tens of thousands of people in the U.S. and hundreds of thousands worldwide. As the condition progresses, up to 95 percent of patients eventually lose the ability to communicate through natural speech. Available solutions remain expensive and imperfect. High-end Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices—especially those requiring specialized hardware like eye tracking—often cost between $10,000 and $15,000. For decades, that barrier has left millions effectively voiceless, relying on systems that flatten emotion and erase identity.
VoXAI was unveiled last week at the AI Summit New York. It’s a product of collaboration among Israeli A.I. startup D-ID, voice A.I. company ElevenLabs, Irisbond, Lenovo, Nvidia and several academic partners. D-ID’s real-time avatar engine animates facial expressions, micro-emotions and natural mouth movements; Irisbond’s hardware enables precise eye-tracking control; ElevenLabs’ voice synthesis recreates the user’s pre-illness voice; Nvidia GPUs provide the real-time A.I. performance required for near-zero latency; and Lenovo supplies the robust hardware environment that keeps the system stable and accessible.
Founded in 2017 in Israel, D-ID initially gained recognition for its privacy technology and became a pioneer in generative A.I. video in 2019. Its systems now power digital presenters, learning companions and interactive avatars for Fortune 500 companies and public institutions.
“When it comes to disability, the biggest blind spot is assuming it is too small or niche to matter commercially,” Gil Perry, co-founder and CEO of D-ID, told Observer. “We believe that expressive, real-time digital presence is becoming a new layer of communication infrastructure, and accessibility is where that value is most clear and most urgent.”
“For some people, expressive presence is a benefit; for others, it’s a lifeline,” Perry added. “Health care and assistive-tech providers needed a dependable expressive avatar layer that could plug into their systems and make communication feel truly human for those it matters most to.”
Muller interacting with VoXAI. Courtesy The Scott-Morgan Foundation
Leah Stavenhagen and her VoXAI avatar. Courtesy The Scott-Morgan Foundation
At its core, VoXAI is built on a simple yet transformative idea: assistive technology should not merely generate words on a user’s behalf; it should help them express themselves.
Leah Stavenhagen, an ALS advocate and early VoXAI trial participant, said the hardest part of losing her speech was the invisibility that came with it. She recently began using the tool as a beta tester and demonstrated her digital avatar onstage during the platform’s public debut at the AI Summit.
“When communication takes 30 seconds to several minutes for every response, conversations don’t wait. By the time you’ve composed your thoughts, the topic has already moved on,” she told Observer, responding through the VoXAI system. “People stop asking complex questions and start speaking about ‘you’ instead of ‘to you.’”
To communicate, users interact with a screen mounted in front of them via an eye-tracking device. As conversation unfolds around them, a microphone captures what others are saying, and the A.I. rapidly synthesizes three possible responses. The user selects one simply by moving their eyes. Once chosen, the avatar—displayed on a screen above the user or on a connected device—instantly delivers the response in the user’s own voice, complete with facial nuance and emotional expression. The avatar continues to learn through ongoing interaction, absorbing preferences, social cues and personal history. The goal is to preserve a continuity of self that many people lose as their illness progresses.
“The first time someone sees their avatar or hears their voice, there’s usually a moment of recognition because you’re giving back something lost,” LaVonne Roberts, CEO of the Scott-Morgan Foundation, told Observer.
Assistive communication technology has long been defined by prohibitive pricing. SMF is attempting to upend that model by offering VoXAI free at the basic tier, with advanced features available for a $30 monthly subscription.
“Identity preservation will become its own category. Voice cloning exists now, but we’re moving toward comprehensive digital identities where your voice, your expressions, your communication patterns are preserved and protected,” said Roberts. “Ambient A.I. systems that listen and respond to context without explicit commands will transform caregiving, elder care, and offer more independence for people living with mobility limitations.”
