Category: Voice Technology

#SHAREVOICE:
THE MOVEMENT TO CHANGE LIVES (INFOGRAPHIC)

MICHELE J MARTIN

#SHAREVOICE is a movement born from the belief that our voices are not identical, they are our identities.

When our founder, Rupal Patel, found herself witnessing people of different genders, ages, geography, and personalities all using the same text-to-speech voices to communicate, she knew that by harnessing technology, we could do better AND we could change lives. This was the beginning of the Human Voicebank and VocaliD's global voicebanking initiatives.

WHAT IS VOICEBANKING?

Voicebanking is a small gesture — with a huge impact. It is the simple act of recording yourself as you read aloud stories on VocaliD’s online studio. Your recordings are then used to train an AI voice for yourself — Vocal Legacy or blended for someone living with speechlessness —BeSpoke.

Jump to our infographic below for more information!

WHO DOES VOICEBANKING BENEFIT?

All of us. Sharing the gift of voice brings us all closer, allowing everyone the ability to express ourselves authentically, rather than with a generic voice that doesn't sound anything like who we are.

Voicebanking for you? Voice loss might be personal —If you or someone you love is currently facing voice loss or is at risk, begin voicebanking today and retain your vocal identity forever.

Voicebanking for others? Contribute your voice to VocaliD’s Human Voicebank so that we can design a totally unique AI voice for those living with speechlessness.

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CAN I VOICEBANK FROM HOME?

Absolutely! Voicebanking is a great activity to participate in while social distancing and staying #safeathome. You can even organize a virtual community voice drive so that your colleagues, friends and family, or neighbors can join in and share their voices!

All you need is a computer, headset microphone, a quiet room, and a few hours. At your own pace, you will record a total of around 2k sentences. You don't need to record it all in one session, in fact you shouldn't because you want your voice and energy to be strong all the way through your recordings. The better the recordings, the higher quality the AI voice will be!

CAN I START NOW?!

We are excited that you want to learn more about how you can join VocaliD's global community of over 27k voice contributors!

Read our infographic below for an overview on the different types of voicebankers and how you can get started. Then go to portal.vocalid.ai/account and sign up! Please click the social share buttons right below the infographic and share it with your friends and followers on social media. You can also download it and print it out!

#SHAREVOICE VOICEBANKING INFOGRAPHIC

VocaliD Voicebanking Infographic
Download Infographic

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INTERVIEW WITH RUPAL PATEL:
'OUTCOMES ROCKET' PODCAST

MICHELE J MARTIN

VocaliD's CEO, Rupal Patel, recently sat down with Outcomes Rocket founder Saul Marquez to discuss the benefits voice technology bring to healthcare and how it can be mastered on the Outcomes Rocket Podcast.

You can listen to this episode below:

IN THIS EPISODE OF OUTCOMES ROCKET:

Here are the topics that Rupal Patel and Saul Marquez touch on during this 33 minute podcast:

  • Overview of VocaliD and Rupal Patel
    •
  • What inspired Rupal to make voice and voice tech her passion
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  • The voice technology applications she sees in the medical sector
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  • Why voice matters in healthcare tech
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  • How voice can improve healthcare outcomes
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  • The differences between traditional voice synthesis and Voice AI
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  • VocaliD's setbacks, achievements, and proudest accomplishments
    •

    "...we can build models of speech with less data and more economically than we've been able to do in the past. That also means we can have a variety of voices for applications rather than just saying we only need one voice for all of our IVR system.

    Think about what we've been doing. I mean, I think right now we're saying there is one voice associated with one brand. Problem is that your customer base is much more, they're very different. So, if you're talking to all your customers in the same way, you're not necessarily resonating with all of them."

    - Rupal Patel, Founder & CEO - VocaliD

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    INTERVIEW WITH RUPAL PATEL:
    'WHEN SHE FOUNDED' PODCAST

    MICHELE J MARTIN

    VocaliD's CEO, Rupal Patel, recently sat down with Channel Clinical Founder and CEO Ms. Somer Hamrick to share her personal and professional experiences as a female founder in STEM for the When She Founded Podcast.

    You can listen to this episode below:

    IN THIS EPISODE OF WHEN SHE FOUNDED:

    Here are the topics that Rupal Patel and Ms. Hamrick touch on during this 36 minute podcast:

  • What inspired Rupal to start VocaliD and the gap in the market she hoped to fill
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  • How she found the funding to launch the voice AI company
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  • Transitioning into an entrepreneurial mindset and the challenges she faced when making this shift
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  • How the VocaliD team has evolved since its inception
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  • Why surrounding yourself with a solid team is critical to the success of your business
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  • The challenges of finding a co-founder with a vision, mission, and passion that is aligned with yours
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  • The phases of building the business that pushed the development of her AI technology to the next level and increased market awareness
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  • Strategies she used to increase consumer awareness and share her message with prospective customers
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  • Why VocaliD’s messaging speaks to two specific audiences
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  • Rupal’s prediction for the trajectory of her business
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  • What her team currently looks like and how it has evolved since the inception of the company
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  • Her passion for STEM4SocialChange and how they help teach children about voice technology and STEM as well as it’s social impact on the world
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  • Rupal’s advice for female entrepreneurs
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  • How Rupal channels her inner strength when faced with uncertainty

    • "Surrounding yourself with a solid team, both on your staff as well as in the advisory or board capacity is vital."

    - Rupal Patel, Founder & CEO - VocaliD

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    VOCALID WINS PROJECT VOICE AWARDS 2020

    MICHELE J MARTIN

    VocaliD is honored to announce that we took home the Healthcare Voice Experience of the Year award at this year's Project Voice Awards in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

    The awards recognize best-in-class global achievement across the realm of voice-first technology and its underlying AI. The Project Voice Awards are part of the annual Project Voice conference, an event focused on everything voice tech — featuring practitioners, technologists, executives, and leaders in this emerging space.

    The Voice of Healthcare Summit Awards Healthcare Voice Experience Of The Year

    Voice Preservation Clinic -VocaliD + Northeastern University

    From all of us at VocaliD, thank you to the judges for their votes and to all of you, for your continued support!

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    VOCALiD FEATURED ON
    VALUE INSPIRATION PODCAST

    MICHELE J MARTIN

    As technological advances bring breakneck changes and new opportunities for society as a whole, businesses need to adapt to keep up and stand out. VocaliD's CEO, Rupal Patel, recently sat down with Value Inspiration podcast host Ton Dobbe to discuss the potential of Voice AI to give people, brands, and products their own vocal identity.

    You can listen to this episode below:

    How Voice Messages Value Proposition

    In a world where everything speaks, the voice sends a message as much as the content it is speaking. Organizations and companies need to unpack and examine what voice means for their brand. Uniqueness is a strength — a differentiator, and technology can help to demonstrate this.

    Not only does voice technology allow an organization or brand to demonstrate their value proposition through audible differentiation, it also assists in powering interaction and connection. Technology can engage and unite people and if these connections are achieved in a manner that is meaningful, then the tech has done its job.

    "The ultimate kind of application is not where we become dependent on the technology but that the technology really facilitates interaction between humans."

    - Rupal Patel, Founder & CEO - VocaliD

    During this interview, you will learn three things:

    Why voice is still so underutilized as a mechanism to connect and interact with the users of our products.

    How voice can help take adoption of your product to new levels by its ability to create a unique bond with users, build trust and change behavior.

    That you role as a product owner is not to reinvent everything – sometimes you are way better of using readily available components and understand their value proposition in context of what you are trying to achieve.

    In summary, this podcast provides an interesting forty minute dive into the science of speech synthesis and the opportunities for Voice.

    Interested in having Rupal appear on your podcast or speak at your event?
    Email us at hello@vocalid.ai!

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    VOCALiD NAMED FINALIST IN
    PROJECT VOICE AWARDS 2020

    MICHELE J MARTIN

    VocaliD is honored to announce that we are finalists for three Project Voice Awards. The awards recognize best-in-class global achievement across the realm of voice-first technology and its underlying AI. This year's Project Voice Awards Gala takes place in Chattanooga, Tennessee on January 15th, 2020. Winners will be announced live so please stay tuned to our social accounts for live updates!

    Voice/AI Pioneer of the Year

    Rupal Patel - CEO & Founder of VocaliD

    The Project Voice Medal For Diversity And Inclusion

    Voice Preservation Clinic -VocalID + Northeastern University

    The Voice of Healthcare Summit Awards Healthcare Voice Experience Of The Year

    Voice Preservation Clinic -VocalID + Northeastern University

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    Voicebanking and Veteran's Month

    VETERAN'S MONTH AT VOCALiD

    By Michele J Martin

    We are grateful for the sacrifices that our veterans have made for us. That’s why we have designated the entire month of November - Veteran's Month.

    Each day 4.6 veterans are diagnosed with head and neck cancer. Some will lose their ability to speak. 50% of all cancer patients will experience feelings of depression and social isolation from the treatments and life changes post surgery. Our technology can help ease the transition and improve quality of life.

    What does VocaliD do?

    Through the combination of voicebanking and our AI-powered voice technology, we help individuals facing speech loss to maintain their social connections, self-identity, and autonomy.

    To learn more about how VocaliD helps individuals, watch the voicebanking journey of Lonnie Blanchard, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force:

    What is Voicebanking?

    Voicebanking is the process of recording one’s speech prior to voice loss. An individual will use our website to record themselves reading sentences from pre-loaded stories. These recordings are then used to create a digital voice that sounds like them.

    Individuals can also choose to contribute their voice recordings to someone who didn't have the opportunity to voicebank for themselves prior to voice loss. Whatever the reason, these people rely on the generosity of anonymous voicebank contributors whose voices are then used to build them unique vocal identities. To date, over 27k English-speaking volunteers from around their world have banked their voice for individuals in need. You can become a voicebank contributor too. It is easy, learn more here: Human Voicebank

    What is Voice Synthesis?

    Once we have the voicebank recordings we use our state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and our speech and audio engineering expertise to build a unique AI voice the recipient. This voice will allow them to speak in their own voice, or a voice crafted especially for them, on a speech generating device such as a mobile phone or tablet.

    What to expect with Veteran's Month?

    Stay tuned each week for a new related blog post and make sure you are following our social media accounts, where we will be curating topically focused informative content for those interested in voicebanking, veterans health, and head and neck cancer. In addition, keep a watch out for other Veteran’s Day announcements this month! On social media be sure to follow along with (and use) #bankyourvoice and #voicedriveforvets to help drive awareness!

    Here is how YOU can help:


  • If you are a physician or clinician caring for veterans with head and neck cancer, we want to talk to you about voicebanking and how it can help your clients and your practice.

  • Want to host a community or company voice drive for veterans? Email us at hello@vocalid.ai to learn how easy it can be.

  • Don’t have a computer or quiet area in your home and looking for a place to voicebank? We have a network of clinics who support the mission and offer dedicated times and spaces for voicebanking. If you are in the Boston area you visit the Speech Preservation Clinic at Northeastern University Monday - Friday. Learn more and make an appointment here: Bouve Colleg of Health Sciences — Voice Preservation Clinic

  • Are you a veteran (or have a loved one who is) and want to help us spread the word about voicebanking for vets on your website or at your local VA hospital or VFW, we’d love to hear from you!

    • Together we can help those with speech loss be heard in their own voice

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    Engineering the Future:
    The Promise and Perils of Voice AI

    Engineering the Future: The Promise and Perils of Voice AI

    Headshot of Rupal Patel

    By Rupal Patel

    Early days at VocaliD

    If we are honest, we started VocaliD to change the world, at least, to change the way voice is represented within the world. We are proud to know that for some individuals, our technology has changed THEIR world and improved their lives and the lives of those around them.

    Building a technology company with the goal to change societal norms comes with significant responsibilities. When you do anything, you impact something. When you bring a new technology into the world, the ability to fully predict every impact is impossible. Chaos theory, the butterfly effect, … despite our best intentions, there will be unintended consequences. And so, as a company that began with the goal of empowering every voice to be heard, how do we limit the misuse of our work?

    For us, we have asked ourselves hard questions early and often. What do we stand for? Are we opening up a pandora’s box? How will we act responsibly today to mitigate risks in the future? It is never an easy exercise, but nowhere is it as challenging as building a technology-based company within a nascent space. There isn’t a formula to follow and you have to be comfortable with the discomfort of not knowing.

    In the early stages, we were just figuring out who we were and then, as the industry has grown around us, we needed to respond to the changing environment. We needed to decide how and whether to pivot or expand. We asked ourselves whether we can grow and still stay true to ourselves.

    When we began this company in 2014, we could only begin to imagine the potential for voice. Our initial focus was on the needs of individuals living without speech, or with impaired speech. It soon became apparent that there was a need for unique synthetic voice beyond assistive technology.

    Technological Advances Bring New Opportunities and New Risks

    A few years ago technology didn’t allow for subtle nuances in voice, hence the robotic sameness that existed for so long. Today, we can emulate these unique characteristics within individual voices and create vocal identities that have personality. As the ability to create synthetic voice approaches ultra-realistic quality, it brings with it both unparalleled opportunities for individuals and businesses but also increased risk in the form of fraud and deception. These concerns are on the minds of many technologists, especially those of us working in synthetic media. How can we ensure that the work we do is contributing positively, rather than fueling harmful and nefarious activities?

    As we prepared for last year’s GDPR compliance we found ourselves realizing that compliance alone was not enough to combat misappropriation of technologies. We need more proactive engagement by the AI community, to ensure we ward off misuses well before they happen.

    How do we do this? What are the steps? Well, it is important to note that what we think is adequate today is going to evolve… it will depend on the growth of the industry and the consumers of this technology. While we can’t possibly anticipate all potential misuses and build countermeasures to block them, we believe it is essential to draw attention to these complex issues in the formative stage of the synthetic media industry so that developers think through the unintended consequences and consumers have the awareness to carefully evaluate the products.

    Starting the AI Ethics Conversation

    "We cannot afford to blur the lines between the virtual and physical world to the extent that comprises the core values of our society. We cannot blindly build technologies without understanding that these new tools will change us fundamentally."

    We believe education and open ongoing communication is the way forward. With this in mind, we’ve partnered with Modulate to form the The AITHOS Coalition as a way for all of us working within synthetic media, from technologists and CEOs to sales and marketers, to help shape the field with the mindful intention of the overarching issues.

    Together, we came up with a self-reflection guide to facilitate the critical discussions we were having within our organizations and amongst others in the field. Some of the topics may not be relevant to all, but we believe they are a starting point in the conversation and are worth considering when building products that have the potential to both disrupt and be misused.

    VocaliD’s take on the AITHOS dialog

    Why is this Synthetic Media Valuable in the First Place?

    When we began, it was obvious. A young girl and a middle-aged man are so inherently different - unique in age, gender, and personality. Of course, they both deserved to have unique vocal identities to speak through their assistive devices. However, this isn’t what was happening. The devices had few voices available and too often, they didn’t represent the person or personality using the prosthesis. VocaliD set out to change that by building personalized synthetic voices.

    As we continue to do this important work, we have begun listening to all of the voices around us and we’ve realized that the issue we were solving didn’t only exist in the assistive technology space, it exists in everyday life. All one needs to do is listen … and you will hear very quickly that synthetic voices we come in contact within our daily lives … are bland, at best. The current voice offerings are not representative of all of us, of our communities, of our needs. For voice actors, this means that only white men or women, or white-sounding men and women, are voicing nearly all of the virtual assistants, IVR systems, alerts and notification systems, and gaming avatars. VocaliD democratizes synthetic voice, creating vocal identities that are as colorful and diverse as the world we live in. Whether it is regional or social dialects or internationally accented English, today’s synthetic voice should sound like us - all of us.

    Who or What Should Your Tech be Able to Emulate?

    Scientists and artists have been fascinated with emulating speech for centuries. What’s different today than in the past is that we are not only emulating speech but also voice… how someone sounds, the actual vocal identity of the speaker, making it susceptible to misuse. What’s adding to the problem is that we are now saving and archiving audio data at an unprecedented rate. CEOs, political figures, influencers all have hours of relatively clean audio that is easily accessible to anyone. Moreover, there is a push to make tools and technologies open source to both fuel innovation and equalize access but with that comes risks. We use proprietary techniques that we purposefully do not open source as a precautionary measure.

    Can we build the voices of children, influencers and other vulnerable populations? Yes, we can build anyone’s voice if we have enough data. We have policies in place to protect data and we have guidelines for voice building. From day one, our approach was to blend voices for those with disabilities. Today, as we work with enterprises, we require that the talent has consented to the use of their voice before we start the project. Moreover, we take proactive steps to ensure that should our data or tech fall into the wrong hands, it would be sufficiently obfuscated.

    When Should You Share How Your Technology Works with the World?

    Given anticipated consequences, we feel it is responsible to be cautious regarding what and how much we share about how the technology works. While we are committed to advancing the field through the dissemination of our technology and findings, we also understand that some aspects of the IP and know-how need to be undisclosed.

    We are focused on educating consumers at this stage — before synthetic voices are indiscernible by humans. Engaging in damage control when audio deep fakes proliferate would be a dangerous proposition.

    Where Can You Sell Your Technology While Still Ensuring it is Used Responsibly?

    Should we sell just because we can? No. This is a matter of principle. We purposefully seek out engagements only with organizations and individuals that are aligned with our values. Our licensing agreements and business contracts also reflect these fundamentals.

    What Data Does Your Machine Learning Process Use?

    Voice is complex and highly personal. The very nature of our work is to build a more inclusive and diverse universe of synthetic voice. Our machine learning algorithms consider a broad demographic varying in age, gender, language background, geography to reflect real-world variations.

    How can it be detected?

    Synthetic voice has advanced considerably in the past few decades. Most recently, the availability of large datasets and machine learning tools has catapulted the field. Soon synthetic voice will become indistinguishable from real audio. We are working on a multi-pronged strategy that encompasses audio steganography (watermarking), voice blending and countermeasure tools. We began talking about this as the moonshot for voice AI - the need to build voices that are life-like without being deceptive, that unite us, rather than divide us. We cannot afford to blur the lines between the virtual and physical world to the extent that comprises the core values of our society. We cannot blindly build technologies without understanding that these new tools will change us fundamentally. For us, we believe that change needs to be a net positive.

    Just the Beginning

    This is an exciting time in Voice. Advances in technology are coming at breakneck speeds, allowing us to offer world-class synthetic voices that truly represent all of us. For individuals and brands that have relied on the voice of only a few, this is amazing news. As voice-first interfaces continue to expand across all aspects of our lives, from customer service to health care and entertainment, customized synthetic voice will power these user experiences. Protecting synthetic media from potential abuse will require a joint, collaborative effort to create the most advanced and impenetrable barriers that protect us all. We hope you join the conversation and the AITHOS coalition.

    Find out more about The AITHOS Coalition.

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    Rupal Patel Named 2019 Voice Visionary

    MICHELE J MARTIN

    VocaliD is honored to announce that our Founder & CEO Rupal Patel has been named one of 11 Top Voice Visionaries for 2019.

    The Top Leaders in Voice - 2019

    The Top Leaders in Voice is a recognition bestowed upon those working in the voice space by a panel of journalists and voice technology peers. The 2019 Voice Leaders are segmented into four lists - Visionaries, Designers and Products, Technologists, and Influencers.

    "Topping the list in the visionaries category are Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Adam Cheyer from Samsung and Viv Labs.

    Designers and products leaders include Google’s Cathy Pearl and Mark Webster from Adobe.

    The Technologists category includes another Googler, Brad Abrams, along with John Giannadrea from Apple and Rohit Prasad from Amazon.

    Then there are the Influencers that are shaping the way consumers and corporate executives think about voice technology today such as Gary Vaynerchuk of Vayner Media, Dave Isbitski from Amazon, and Noelle LaChartie from Microsoft.

    However, these lists are not limited to executives at big companies. Many have an outsized influence on the market today because of the reach and impact of their companies, but also included are startup founders from Audioburst, Audio Analytic, Clinc, Orbita, Pretzel Labs, and VocaliD among others."

    -voicebot.ai

    How were these Voice Leaders chosen?

    Voicebot utilized a variety of methods to narrow down their list and determine the final Top 44 Leaders in Voice, including - surveys of voice professionals, panel suggestions, media coverage, and social media activity. None of the judges or writers affiliated with Voicebot were eligible for consideration. Each individual was then scored based on several factors and, if chosen, were then segmented into their leadership category.

    Learn more about the selection process and the panel of judges, listed at the bottom of the overview page, linked above.

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    The SEARCH FOR RORI's VOICE

    MICHELE J MARTIN

    One of the founding missions of VocaliD is to give voice to the voiceless. It fuels everything we do. Every time we are able to build and deliver one of our personalized synthetic voices to an individual and improve their lives, we are reminded of why we do this.

    Chasing the Cure

    Chasing the Cure is a new television show that brings the power of crowdsourcing to medical mysteries. Cases that have been undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, all desperate for a cure. The site features a list of different case files that visitors can read through and comment on. One of these case files was Rori.

    We were so moved by Rori's case. As a speech scientist, our founder, Rupal Patel, was certain she could help, so she recorded a video message that we then posted on Twitter... hoping it would get in front of Rori and the team at Chasing the Cure.

    Confident that we could help Rori to regain some of her lost vocal identity and independence, the video offered to build her a unique synthetic voice through the power of crowdsourced voices from contributors around the world. We made the offer and asked her to contact us if interested and then we waited.

    On tonight's live premiere episode, our video made it in front of Rori.

    Rori's Case

    Find out more about Rori's Case and tune into TNT / TBS to watch Chasing the Cure Live and follow her story.

    We Need YOUR Help

    VocaliD is honored that Rori saw our video and has accepted our offer to help. Now we need YOUR help.

    Contribute your voice today and help us find a #VoiceForRori.

    You can also help by spreading the word amongst your friends on social media by tweeting your involvement below!

    I’m contributing my voice to Rori. Join the cause and help Rori in her journey. Contribute your voice today! #ChasingTheCure #VoiceForRori #ShareVoice

    Follow the journey to find a #VoiceForRori here on our blog or on our social media channels.

    Learn more about BeSpoke Voice by VocaliD

    Spread the word - Use #VoiceForRori and #ChasingTheCure

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