For Scientific American's Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman.

Today, we'll be hearing from a few folks, one of whom is a young man named Jakob Jordan.

Hi, my name is Jakob.

Jakob has autism and apraxia, which is a disorder of the brain and nervous system that keeps people from carrying out physical actions at their own command.

In Jakob's case, it can be difficult or even impossible to speak his thoughts aloud.

So it might surprise you to learn that Jakob just starred in an opera.

It's called Sensorium Ex.

We just go.

Anywhere as long as it's now and we are being.

In a moment, you'll hear Jakob using the custom-built AI speech synthesis device that made this opera sing, one that was specifically designed to sound like him, and crucially, to give him expressive control over his own voice.