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Creating an AI tool to overcome a language disability
May 7, 2020, marked the start of Stephen Albright’s toughest challenge.
Already a testicular cancer survivor, Albright (BSBA ’19) was attending a remote work meeting from his parents’ home in Raleigh when he experienced blurred vision, nausea and pain on the left side of his face.
Albright had a stroke caused by the bursting of an arteriovenous malformation, an abnormal tangle of blood vessels that causes problems with the connections between arteries and veins. Doctors said the rare occurrence has a 13% survival rate.
When Albright woke up after the first of two emergency surgeries, he heard a nurse talking to him in what sounded like a different language. FaceTime video calls with his family, unable to be with him because of COVID-19 restrictions, were equally difficult to understand.
“That’s where I started learning what aphasia is,” says Albright, a former Tar Heel football player who earned a business administration degree at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Aphasia is a communication disability, most commonly caused by strokes, that affects the ability to speak, understand, read and write. “All your intelligence is in your head; you just can’t communicate,” Albright says.
Doctors told him he was fortunate to be alive and at times were skeptical about his prospects of returning to his consulting job in New York City.
But the brain is malleable, and Albright was ready to bet on himself. He went through intensive rehabilitation, a “boot camp of relearning everything.” After a year, he returned to his job while still recovering, a process marked by ups and downs and frustration but also perseverance and progress.
“I didn’t realize that it was going to be a five-year journey of just working as hard as I possibly can,” Albright said. He still has the condition.
Albright has been so successful at regaining his language skills that he’s created an artificial intelligence tool to aid others with aphasia.
Launched in 2025 and added to Apple’s App Store, AphasiaGPT is a personal speech therapy assistant that helps people rebuild communication skills through AI-powered conversations, exercises and real-world scenario practice.
During the toughest times of his recovery, Albright tried to “catch” moments of hope whenever he could. He wants AphasiaGPT to provide not only practical help but also inspiration to those in the thick of a recovery.
“Just telling them what helped my journey, it gives me so much motivation,” Albright says. “I’m like, ‘Wow, I can actually change people’s lives.’”
AI for good
AI use wasn’t mainstream during the first years of Albright’s aphasia recovery.
“I started digging in, really understanding AI and seeing what could help me,” he says.
Later, as a Duke MBA student, Albright found himself asking, “What is my passion? What do I want to do in my life?”
He realized he wanted to share the technology that was helping him with his day-to-day life with other people with aphasia.
But using AI and building it are two different things. Albright and his intern, Kashish Maheshwari, got to work.
Albright’s lived experiences influenced the tool’s layout and features:
- Word finder: Uses a webcam to help users identify things around them and includes a dynamic dictionary
- Recorder: Creates summaries and to-do lists from recorded audio
- Personalized news: Summarizes current events
- Vocabulary builder: Organizes a master list of words with their definitions and can generate images of terms and flashcards
- Coach: Allows users to describe what they see in an AI-generated image by speaking or typing and receive feedback
- Simulation: Lets users practice conversations in specific scenarios like a party
“Tools I wish I had five years ago,” Albright said.
Over 300 people are currently using AphasiaGPT, and Albright recently spoke about it at a large speech language pathologist conference.
These health professionals are “angels,” Albright says and he’s glad to have received positive feedback from many on his AI innovation. He’s also returned to Carolina to speak to graduate students learning to become speech language pathologists (SLP).
“The SLPs are so excited,” he said, “and it seems like their entire world is changing just because of it.”
Dreaming big
Looking ahead, Albright is bullish on the possibility of incorporating wearable technology like Meta AI Glasses into AphasiaGPT to create a more comprehensive and interactive learning environment.
He also recently submitted an application to YCombinator, a startup accelerator and venture capital firm in San Francisco.
But Albright is proud of AphasiaGPT in its current form. The app helps others with aphasia and aids Albright with his own recovery.
“I’ve always said I’m in a dark tunnel,” he says, “but now I’m starting to see a light.”
This story is by Brennan Doherty of UNC Communications and Marketing.