Elon Musk's Neuralink Lets ALS Patient Tell His Wife 'I Love You' Just By Thinking — In His Own Voice

Neuralink has given one man with ALS a way to say the words his wife thought she might no longer hear clearly. Terry Mandable used the company’s brain implant to tell her "I love you" through a reconstructed version of his own voice.

The emotional moment appeared in Neuralink’s video, "Speaking With The Mind," released in September. Mandable, the third participant in the company’s experimental VOICE trial, generated the words through neural signals rather than speaking them aloud.

His wife reacted with visible surprise as the phrase appeared on screen and played through the system. The synthetic voice was modeled on recordings of Mandable from before amyotrophic lateral sclerosis significantly changed his speech.

Neuralink Decodes Intended Speech

Mandable was diagnosed with bulbar-onset ALS in 2024. Although he can still move his mouth and body, the disease has made his speech difficult for others to understand.

Neuralink implanted its N1 device in the speech motor region of his brain. The implant records neural activity through roughly 3,000 channels, capturing signals associated with intended speech. Software then translates those signals into text and spoken output.

Mandable initially trained the system by miming speech as best he could before progressing to generating words by thinking them. Grok Voice powers the audio, which uses a synthetic recreation of his pre-ALS voice.

In the video, Mandable describes how losing his voice has affected him and says he hopes the technology will let him "be a part of the conversation again."

His wife explains that he had recently made partner at his firm and was at the peak of his career before speech difficulties led him to long-term disability. She describes the impact of restoring his ability to communicate as "remarkable," saying it has given him back "a piece of his life" that is "an integral part of him."

She also says being able to have a conversation with her husband "means the world to us."

Mandable delivers his own assessment through the system, saying, "Neuralink has given me back my voice."

Elon Musk Responds To The Demonstration

Neuralink shared a shorter clip of the exchange on X with the caption "A beautiful surprise." Neuralink CEO and co-founder Elon Musk reposted the clip and replied, "I love you."

Mandable posted on X to thank the Neuralink team, calling the technology "a tremendous gift" during his battle with ALS.

The demonstration follows Neuralink’s earlier work with other VOICE trial participants, including Kenneth Shock. The company’s separate PRIME study, which included ALS patient Brad Smith, focused more on computer cursor control, with AI voice cloning used to speak text typed through the system.

Researchers outside Neuralink have also demonstrated brain-based speech decoding. A 2024 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine by researchers at UC Davis showed that a different brain-computer interface could translate attempted speech into words for a person with ALS.

The VOICE Trial Remains In Its Early Stages

Neuralink’s VOICE study is an early feasibility trial evaluating the safety and performance of the N1 implant for people with severe speech impairment. It is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT07224256.

Neuralink says its devices remain investigational and have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory authorities. Results may vary by participant, and the demonstration does not establish how well the system will work for others.

For Mandable, the technology has provided a way to communicate words that were becoming increasingly difficult for others to understand. His exchange with his wife shows how brain-computer interfaces could help people with ALS maintain a connection through speech, even as the disease changes their ability to communicate.