How an AI cloning tool is letting this Quebec man with ALS keep his voice

Leaning into a small microphone in a Quebec City studio, Dr. Alec Cooper takes a breath and reads out part of the often-quoted "To be, or not to be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

"It's pretty dramatic," said Cooper, backing away from the microphone and letting out a laugh.

"I just realized, my God, it really is talking about death."

It's a subject Cooper says he's been forced to think about over the past year and a half after he was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal motor neuron disease. He was initially given an average life expectancy of two to five years. 

The family doctor, originally from Victoria, had 1,800 patients before announcing his snap retirement last year.

Staying busy renovating his house to become wheelchair accessible, Cooper has also been spending more time in front of a microphone — recording common sayings, elaborate poems and his favourite book passages as part of the process to clone his voice for when the disease progresses further.

He's using AI-powered voice technology by ElevenLabs — a U.S.-based company that is offering the tech to one million people who suffer from degenerative diseases, including ALS, mouth cancer, stroke victims or those with Parkinson's disease.

The AI tool allows users to input a small amount of audio which generates a voice clone with that person's natural tone and inflection when they need to rely on text-to-speech devices. Cooper started feeding the ElevenLabs bank himself at home and is getting help from professionals at the local rehab centre.

"When the voice is gone, it's gone forever," said Cooper.

"Thanks to this technology, the disease can't take my voice away."

Compared to most people who have an ALS diagnosis, Cooper says he's considered a "slow progressor" and that he looks "pretty bloody good."

Still, the symptoms of the illness are creeping up. He says he's starting to have trouble dressing, doing up buttons and handling utensils.

His friend, Dr. Jean-Pierre Canuel, who was diagnosed with ALS 11 years ago, is further along.

Canuel, a retired doctor, still gardens using his lawn mower, drives an adapted van and is dedicated to his hobby of making wooden charcuterie boards. Sitting in his motorized wheelchair, he smiles while swiping through photos of his grandchildren. It takes great effort to speak, but Canuel tells CBC that before his diagnosis, "I was a strong man."