Disease stole his voice. Technology returned it

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Plus, here's what it’s like to live with sensory sensitivities.

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Utah Business

By Sarah Gambles

Sunday May 4, 2025

⛈️ 45 – 70° Logan | ⛈️ 55 – 73° Salt Lake

⛈️ 42 – 66° Manti | ⛈️ 57 – 78° Moab

⛈️ 44 – 64° Cedar City | ⛈️ 58 – 73° St. George

🌅 Good morning!

Few things in this world are as elusive as Utah spring.

This March had us believing spring had sprung only to fool us when it turned back into winter weather a week later.

Here are three observations Meg Walter made about the season in Utah:

"Spring season here in the Wasatch Front this year has been following the same patterns as a toxic boyfriend. Maybe toxic girlfriends, too, I just can’t speak to that experience." "Spring ghosted us. It made us think we were going to have a happily ever after and then it just disappeared, leaving us heartbroken. My daughter actually cried when she saw a blanket of snow on the ground one morning in late March." "Spring has always been like this — not really what it claims. It’s not the loving companion we all want it to be. It’s the toxic ex who should be saved in our phones as DO NOT ANSWER, if not blocked altogether. It cannot be trusted to commit, even if it promises to stay this time, every time."

🌷 Read more about Utah spring.

Disease stole his voice, but Musk’s technology returned it

Bradford Smith has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and lost his voice in 2020. But with the help of Neuralink and artificial intelligence, he now has a voice again.

He's the third person to receive a Neuralink implant and the first of the recipients who could not speak on his own.

How does it work?

The technology is a coin-sized implanted brain-computer interface made by a company Elon Musk founded with a team of scientists and engineers, Lois Collins reported.

It has 1,024 electrodes and can read neural activity, sending signals to a computer. Artificial intelligence decodes what Brad wants to type, which he’s able to tell it telepathically.

It can even read out his responses in his own voice, cloned by AI from recordings.

Shortly after his diagnosis, he started recording stories for his children like how he met his wife, what he was like in school, etc. Those recordings helped train AI to speak for him in the voice he had.

Now he can joke again and has his voice back in some capacity.

His advice to others? “As you go through life, be friendly with everyone and work hard on everything! You never know when you will need a friend to help you out!”

What it’s like to live with sensory sensitivities

Roger and Carrie's 13-year-old daughter Lily has autism and sensory processing disorder. This means her brain processes senses differently and some senses become overwhelming, Krysyan Edler reported.

This means that growing up, she was often sensitive to tastes, textures, sounds and smells, which impacted the places she could go and the things she could do.

Navigating life with sensory sensitivities can be a challenge, but Lily's not alone.

Here are four key points:

One in 36 children in the U.S. has autism spectrum disorder, which “equates to about 25,000 children in Utah,” according to Intermountain Health. 74% of children with autism are affected by sensory sensitivity, according to a paper by University of Utah's Huntsman Mental Health Institute. That equates to 18,500 children in Utah based on the previous estimate. Hypersensitivity is when it's harder to ignore sensory intake. Someone who experiences hypersensitivity with bright lights, including the sun, could choose to wear sunglasses or a hat to help avoid a sensory overload. Hyposensitivity means individuals seeks out sensory intake — that could look like someone spinning or needing to move.

Photo of the week by Brice Tucker

A firefighter presents the flag from the casket to the wife of the late South Jordan firefighter Corban Summers, Kim Summers, during a funeral service for Corban Summers at Hunter High School in West Valley City on Saturday, April 26, 2025.

🗓️ Events Calendar

We put together a calendar list of events and activities going on around the state of Utah during this month. Check it out and let us know if we are missing anything!

Here are some highlights for events in Utah today:

Salt Lake Home & Patio Expo | Mountain America Expo Center, Sandy Utah Tech baseball vs. Seattle U | 12:05 p.m.

Please reach out to me at [email protected] if you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas you would like to share!

✨ Cheers ✨

— Gambles

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Disease stole his voice. Technology returned it

How does it work?

What it’s like to live with sensory sensitivities

Photo of the week by Brice Tucker

🗓️ Events Calendar

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