Apple has unveiled a new advertisement to showcase its latest feature, Personal Voice, designed for users at risk of speech loss. This feature allows individuals to generate a voice that resembles their own by following text prompts and capturing 15 minutes of audio.
Directed by Taika Waititi, the short film portrays the journey of a young girl in search of her lost voice, narrated through Apple’s accessibility innovation, Personal Voice. The child, donned in striped pajamas and an overcoat, stands in a forest, exploring her surroundings.
Assisting her in the quest is a large, pink-and-white furry creature with floppy ears, wearing a leafy shirt and red-rimmed glasses. Together, they scour various locations—under logs, on hillsides, up in trees, and even on a small tugboat amidst a storm.
In a surprising twist at the film’s conclusion, it is revealed that the girl was actually listening to a bedtime story narrated by her father using Apple’s Personal Voice feature. The storybook, titled “The Lost Voice,” becomes a cherished favorite, prompting the girl to request her father, portrayed by Dr. Tristram Ingham, a physician, professor, and disability advocate who uses a wheelchair due to facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), to read it once more.
The advertisement’s soundtrack, an adapted version of X Carbon’s Yodeler, incorporates human vocal samples to create a striking effect.
