She Lost Her Voice Before Her Wedding. AI Gave Her Vows Back.
Mati, the chief executive of ElevenLabs, calls restoring voices lost to illness probably the company's most important work.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · The Trillion-Dollar Industries AI Is Disrupting: Voice, Law & the End of the Billable HourThe couple had already married, but they decided to do it over. They would redo the marriage together and say the vows again, so the family could hear them for the first time.
The bride was a woman who had wanted to get married but had become unable to speak before the wedding. She and her husband chose to speak their vows again after her voice was brought back.
That account came from Mati, the chief executive of ElevenLabs, a company that builds text to speech software designed to sound human. He called work to bring back voices lost to ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and throat cancer probably the company's most important work, saying that "voice is such a big part of identity."
He called the wedding story the most heartwarming example. With the woman's voice restored, the family listened as the couple repeated their vows. Mati said, "You could feel the emotions." Mati added, "The voice is such a connecting thing."
He described similar work with Jennifer Wexton, a congresswoman in the United States who had lost her voice and wanted to show others they could still do serious work. In Mati's account, it was "the first speech delivered in Congress," given in a restored voice.
The couple redid the vows, and the family heard them for the first time.
Questions people ask
How can AI recreate someone's voice after they have lost it?
It usually learns from old recordings of the person speaking, such as videos, voicemails, or voice messages. The software studies pitch, rhythm, and pronunciation, then builds a model that can read new text in that same style. The more clear recordings available, the more natural the result sounds.
What happened to former Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton?
Wexton was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a brain disorder that severely affected her speech. She did not seek re-election in 2024 and left Congress in 2025. She used a recreated version of her voice to continue speaking publicly, including on the House floor.
Can anyone get their voice restored this way?
Access is growing but still limited, and quality depends on having enough past audio. Some companies and clinics offer voice banking, where people at risk of losing speech record phrases in advance. Nonprofits and hospitals also help patients with ALS and throat cancer preserve or rebuild speech.