{"id":12581,"date":"2025-12-28T11:16:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T11:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.d-id.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=12581"},"modified":"2026-01-07T13:33:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:33:52","slug":"daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.d-id.com\/news\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking&#8217;s computer gets a glow up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Stephen Hawking changed the world\u2019s expectations for assistive communication when he began speaking through a computer on his wheelchair. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-15370479\/Stephen-Hawking-AI-powered-AVATAR-severe-disabilities.html?ico=authors_pagination_desktop#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">This article by the Daily Mail<\/a> explores what the next leap looks like: AI that can help people with degenerative diseases communicate through a life-like digital version of themselves, not just a robotic voice. The concept is a two-screen setup mounted to a wheelchair, where the user interacts with a screen in front of them, and their words appear as a speaking avatar on a screen above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The piece describes how the avatar is designed to look and sound like the user, capturing their face, voice, and expressive cues like emotion, tone, and inflection. It also suggests the system can be trained on personal context so it responds in a way that feels authentic to the individual. In conversation, a microphone listens to the exchange, the AI generates three possible responses, and the user selects one using eye-tracking\u2014aiming to keep up with the natural rhythm of dialogue in just a few seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The article introduces the software as <strong>SMF VoXAI<\/strong>, driven by the Scott-Morgan Foundation and architected via eye-tracking by SMF chief technologist Bernard Muller, who is fully paralysed with ALS. It highlights the scale of unmet need for people with severe speech limitations, and positions this approach as a step toward broader access. It also notes VoXAI was created in partnership with <strong>D-ID<\/strong>, which contributed the avatar technology, alongside ElevenLabs for voice and Nvidia hardware, and is being developed with the goal of making the software available for free while the team works toward a scalable hardware setup.<\/p>\n\n\n<section class=\"c-block c-margin c-margin--top-default c-margin--bottom-default c-padding--top-default c-padding--bottom-default c-paddingm--top-default c-paddingm--bottom-default c-block b-buttons b-buttons--page-daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up  align b-buttons-layout-default b-buttons--layout-default b-buttons-style-default\" id=\"b-buttons-1\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"c-button-collection\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-button-collection__item\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-15370479\/Stephen-Hawking-AI-powered-AVATAR-severe-disabilities.html?ico=authors_pagination_desktop#\" class=\"c-link btn c-button c-button btn-arrow btn-primary\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Click to read the full article\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\n\t\n\tClick to read the full article\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t<svg width=\"14\" height=\"15\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 15\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" role=\"presentation\">\n\t\t\t<path d=\"M1.30225 13.0525H12.2991V2.05567\" stroke=\"#FF882E\" stroke-width=\"2\"\/>\n\t\t\t<line y1=\"-1\" x2=\"16.3571\" y2=\"-1\" transform=\"matrix(-0.707107 -0.707107 -0.707107 0.707107 11.5664 13.9443)\" stroke=\"#FF882E\" stroke-width=\"2\"\/>\n\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\n\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Hawking changed the world\u2019s expectations for assistive communication when he began speaking through a computer on his wheelchair. This article by the Daily Mail explores what the next leap looks like: AI that can help people with degenerative diseases communicate through a life-like digital version of themselves, not just a robotic voice. The concept&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":12582,"template":"","news_cat":[51],"class_list":["post-12581","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_cat-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking&#039;s computer gets a glow up | D-ID<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read more about &quot; Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking&#039;s computer gets a glow up &quot; in our news section.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.d-id.com\/news\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking&#039;s computer gets a glow up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Read more about &quot; Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking&#039;s computer gets a glow up &quot; in our news section.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.d-id.com\/news\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"D-ID\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/deidentification\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-07T13:33:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.d-id.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Daily_Mail_logo_PNG_2-scaled.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@D_ID_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\\\/\",\"name\":\"Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking's computer gets a glow up | D-ID\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Daily_Mail_logo_PNG_2-scaled.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-28T11:16:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-07T13:33:52+00:00\",\"description\":\"Read more about \\\" Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking's computer gets a glow up \\\" in our news section.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Daily_Mail_logo_PNG_2-scaled.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Daily_Mail_logo_PNG_2-scaled.png\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1440},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/daily-mail-stephen-hawkings-computer-gets-a-glow-up\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Daily Mail: Stephen Hawking&#8217;s computer gets a glow up\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.d-id.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"D-ID\",\"description\":\"Create AI Videos, Interactive Avatars to engage your audience. 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This article by the Daily Mail explores what the next leap looks like: AI that can help people with degenerative diseases communicate through a life-like digital version of themselves, not just a robotic voice. 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