Val Kilmer at the premiere of his documentary ‘Val’ in 2021.

AI Rescues Actor Val Kilmer’s Dreams of Being Able to Perform Again

The phrase from the movie Tombstone that is most often repeated online is, “I’m your Huckleberry.” But when they were spoken by Val Kilmer who played Doc Holliday in the movie, they helped to make him a Hollywood legend.

However, life took a hard turn for the actor in 2014 when he had to deal with throat cancer. After having a tracheostomy, he lost his voice. At least enough of it that it would require a voice box held up to his throat to understand him. Now comes an AI miracle of sorts from a London-based AI company. On dailymail.co.uk, a story shows there’s hope for people who are voiceless.

Sonontic Limited, a British start-up, has restored Kilmer’s voice with AI. Its app has been dubbed the “Photoshop for voice.” The artificial voice, which speaks in the first person as Kilmer in Sonantic’s video, could easily be mistaken for the real thing.

“Praising the results, the real Val Kilmer said: ‘I’m grateful to the entire team at Sonantic who masterfully restored my voice in a way I’ve never imagined possible.’ “

Below is the video Sonontic released. It truly is amazing in sound quality. And Kilmer is actually able to use it in his personal communications with others.

Researchers took previous recordings of Kilmer’s voice and fed their AI with them. Sonantic CTO and co-founder John Flynn described the ambitious project in a blog post on his company’s website.

Flynn told MailOnline his firm was approached by Kilmer’s team late last year as they were creating the Amazon Prime documentary, Val. 

The future use of AI to restore voices to injured actors or just everyday people who are dealing with similar health issues. It is another step in the AI medical journey that produces more surprises every day.

read more at dailymail.co.uk