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Cancer stole her voice. She used AI, curse words and kids’ books to get it back

In recent months Sonya Sotinsky, oral cancer patient, used an AI company to create a voice clone from banked recordings stored in Whisper, restoring her natural inflection and saving her life.
Facing surgery that would remove her tongue and voice box, Sotinsky recorded hours of speech in the five weeks before treatment, including children's books and profanity to capture her cadence.
When family and clinicians heard the AI voice, family members said, `When we heard her AI voice, we all cried — my sister, my dad, and I. It's crazy similar,` while clinicians engaged more with her care team.
Amid insurer refusals, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona denied Sotinsky’s $3,000 assistive device reimbursement, so she pays $99 monthly for her AI voice clone while Jennifer De Los Santos pursues clinical trials.
Research could generate the data insurers need to change coverage criteria nationally, as most doctors and speech therapists lack bandwidth to encourage pre-surgery voice recording; Sotinsky speaks at conferences and runs voicebanknow.com to urge research.

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Cancer stole her voice. She used AI, curse words and kids’ books to get it back

By April Dembosky, KQED, KFF Health News When doctors told her they had to remove her tongue and voice box to save her life from the cancer that had invaded her mouth, Sonya Sotinsky sat down with a microphone to record herself saying the things she would never again be able to say. Related Articles US vaccine advisers say not all babies need a hepatitis B shot at birth ‘We can’t just teach abstinence’: How advice …

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