Stephen Hawking spoke through a computer speech synthesizer for more than thirty years, and its steady, electronic voice became part of how the world knew him. Lazybird's Stephen Hawking AI voice generator lets you write your own lines and hear them in that style, for science explainers, school projects, video intros and clearly labeled parody.
Who was Stephen Hawking?
Stephen Hawking (January 8, 1942 – March 14, 2018) was an English theoretical physicist, born in Oxford, who died at his home in Cambridge. He was diagnosed with motor neuron disease (ALS) in 1963, was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge from 1979 to 2009, and wrote the best-seller A Brief History of Time (1988). In 1985, pneumonia led to a tracheotomy that took away his ability to speak, and from then on he talked through a computer speech synthesizer. He kept that American-accented voice for the rest of his life, even after newer voices became available.
Stephen Hawking text to speech
The Stephen Hawking text to speech voice runs in your browser and is free to start. Type your script, select the voice and hear it back in seconds, then download the audio for your video. For another classic computer voice, try Microsoft Sam, or pick a human narrator like Morgan Freeman.
How do I write a good script for this voice?
The voice reads every word at the same steady pace, so the writing does the work. Use complete sentences, commas and periods for pauses, and spell out numbers and abbreviations the way you want them read. Short, clear statements about big ideas suit it best: space, time, black holes and the questions science is still trying to answer.
About this voice
This is an AI voice made to sound like the computer voice Stephen Hawking used. It is not a recording of him, and Lazybird is not affiliated with or endorsed by his estate, his family or the University of Cambridge. Keep it to science-style narration and clearly labeled parody: label the audio as AI-generated, and don't use it for news, politics, ads, endorsements or anything that could pass as a real statement from him.
Avatar photo: NASA/Paul E. Alers (2008), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).