A musician who lost his ability to sing after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease has returned to the stage with the help of artificial intelligence, in a moment he described as deeply personal and life affirming, the BBC reported.
Patrick Darling, a 32 year old singer and composer from Bristol, had been making music since the age of 14 when he was diagnosed with the degenerative condition three years ago. According to the BBC, Darling said losing his voice and the ability to play instruments was “deeply profound and devastating”, stripping him of what he called his biggest love.
Music had shaped most of Darling’s life. Before his diagnosis, he fronted the Irish folk group The Ceili House Band and, largely self taught, learned to play an array of instruments including guitar, piano, mandolin, tenor banjo and bass guitar.
That loss, however, was partially reversed with the help of ElevenLabs, a digital voice platform that allowed Darling to recreate his singing voice using recordings from his past performances. The BBC reported that the technology can generate accurate digital replicas of natural sound from existing audio.
“The ElevenLabs singing voice that we’ve created is wonderful and definitely sounds like me,” Darling told the BBC.
Motor neurone disease affects the brain and spinal cord and can progressively take away a person’s ability to speak, eat and breathe.
On Wednesday, Darling stepped back on stage for the first time since his diagnosis to debut Ghost Of A Man I Never Met. He performed alongside former bandmates, guitarist Nick Cocking and violinist Hari Ma. Darling composed the music using the AI software and paired it with lyrics he had written himself.
In the audience were members of his family, hearing him sing again for the first time since his illness changed his life.
“It provides hope, support and meaning to people in ways that you can’t fully appreciate unless you’ve lived it yourself,” Darling told the BBC.
Speech therapist Richard Cave, who worked with Darling to develop the AI voice, said working on the project had been “an absolute privilege”. “Watching the song performed on stage with a live band is a moment I’ll never forget,” Cave was quoted as saying.