AI Gave Him His Voice Back ❤️

Imagine losing the ability to speak. Not gradually going quiet — but having the words in your head with no way to get them out. That's what ALS does.

Kenneth Shock has ALS, and he lost his ability to speak earlier this year. Neuralink (Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company) is now restoring speech to patients like Kenneth.

Here's how: Neuralink surgically places a small chip inside the brain. That chip reads the neural activity that would normally tell your mouth to form words. Even when the muscles can't respond, the brain still fires those signals. Neuralink's software catches them, decodes them, assembles them into words, and plays them back — in the patient's own voice.

The tech is still in clinical trials, and there are real challenges ahead — regulatory approvals, long-term safety data, and serious questions about who owns your neural data. But a chip smaller than a coin is already translating thoughts into speech.

Somewhere in London, a focus group of young people casually admitted they'd rather talk to ChatGPT than bother their friends with their problems. They even had a pet name for it — "my chatty."

The CEO of Hinge heard this and did not find it cute. Jackie Jantos argues that what feels considerate — not burdening your friends — is quietly dismantling the very thing that builds intimacy.

When people don't know they're talking to AI, they actually rate those conversations as more empathic than ones with real humans. So to them, it's not even a bad substitute — which is exactly why it's dangerous.