AFL icon and Australian of the Year Neale Daniher lost the ability to speak because of motor neurone disease (MND), but thanks to AI technology, his family and fans can hear his voice again.
Here’s how the technology works.
Neale Daniher and his family complete a lap of honour at the MCG before Monday’s Big freeze match between Melbourne (the team he used to coach) and Collingwood.Credit: Getty Images
MND is a degenerative autoimmune disease that damages nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord responsible for controlling muscles, which slowly impedes the person’s ability to move and speak.
But the eye can be resistant to the degeneration, so eye-gaze technology has been developed to help patients communicate.
Eye-gaze technology involves the user looking at a keyboard or phrases on a screen, while an infrared-sensitive camera tracks their eye as it moves. The camera uses the pupil as a centrepoint and the light reflecting off the eye to detect movement, allowing the user to spell out or select words, according to research and development company Eyegaze Inc.
Daniher, 64, has used the technology to record his words which are converted into an animated voice. He was using that technology in January when he made his acceptance speech as Australian of the Year, an award bestowed on him for his fundraising efforts to find a cure for MND.
The voice has a similar robotic cadence as that made famous by fellow MND sufferer Stephen Hawking, though the theoretical physicist used a cheek muscle to dictate to a computer once he lost the use of his hands.
But with the latest AI developments that allow for voice cloning, Daniher has been able to communicate using a voice, tone and style that sounds remarkably like he did beforehand.
Recorded press conferences that Daniher gave during his 10-year stint as Melbourne’s coach (1998-2008) were entered into an AI model that learnt the natural rhythm and sound of his voice and replicated it.
AI company ElevenLabs said on its website its voice clones were “virtually indistinguishable from the real thing”.
Daniher said with a grin: “It is much better than the robot voice I had, but I don’t sit around listening to myself all day”.
His wife, Jan, said it was exciting to hear her husband’s voice again.
“The first time we heard it, we were just gobsmacked,” she told Seven News in March.
The average life expectancy for someone diagnosed with MND is 27 months, but Daniher has been battling the disease for more than a decade. He has used his standing as Australian of the Year to draw even more attention to the cause of finding a cure.
The FightMND co-founder again joined the Big Freeze at the MCG for the King’s Birthday clash between Melbourne and Collingwood on Monday, where Ariarne Titmus and Cadel Evans were among the fundraisers to take the plunge down the ice bath slide.
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