Terry was diagnosed with bulbar-onset ALS, a form of the disease that made his speech increasingly difficult for the people closest to him to understand. As the third participant in Neuralink’s VOICE study, he is helping train a brain-computer interface to recognize intended speech and speak it aloud in his own natural voice.
The most moving part is not the futuristic hardware. It is the moment conversation becomes possible again: Terry hearing his words come through and sharing a simple “I love you” with his wife. The technology is still investigational, but for him, it is opening a path back into the conversations that make up a life.