When we talk about artificial intelligence today, it often conjures the same images.
Machines replacing human creativity, algorithms generating lifeless replicas of art, and technology that feels increasingly detached from the human soul. But this is a misconception.
AI isn’t limited to efficiency or automation.
At the intersection of technology and emotion lies VOICE GEMS, a groundbreaking project by Trung Bao and Harry Yeff. Their work challenges how we perceive AI — not as something that strips away humanity, but as a tool that deepens it.
Turning voices into gemstones
VOICE GEMS is a new initiative that uses AI to transform the human voice into a tangible object.
Trung Bao, the Co-Founder of VOICE GEMS, believes that voice is the most universal human skill. Language, after all, is the world’s most common expertise — the bridge between emotion and intellect, identity and connection.
As Trung put it during the recent AI forum on 8 November 2025, From Code to Culture — Inclusive AI for Cultural Sustainability, “every voice is worth celebrating for simply existing.”
VOICE GEMS transforms the human voice — laughter, whispers, declarations of love, even the first or last words ever spoken — into digital and physical gemstones. Each voice becomes a vocal DNA, an irreplicable artifact shaped by tone, frequency, and rhythm.
He likened it to an engagement ring that symbolises love through a diamond. But these voice-generated gems preserve something far more intimate: a person’s presence.
In a sense, they allow you to hold someone’s voice — to keep a fragment of their essence forever.
Each gem is unique, remarkable, and vulnerable, mirroring the imperfections that make every human voice distinct.
The technology behind the beauty
Skeptics might ask — how do we know these gems aren’t just random shapes?
The creators explain that each sculpture is derived directly from a voice’s acoustic data. There are only six key data points per particle, and they correspond to the specific frequency, range, and energy of an individual’s speech.
A child’s higher pitch might produce a denser, more colourful palette, while a soft-spoken adult might yield a smoother, single-toned gem. The most crucial part? You can’t choose the colour or form. In a world oversaturated with options to customise, the curation itself becomes authenticity.
From laughter to sculpture
VOICE GEMS has evolved from digital art into tangible artifacts.
Working with designer Isabel White, the team produced the first physical prototypes. They’re 3D-printed in silver. Each piece captures the rhythm of laughter, breath, and speech.
Trung Bao proudly announces, “now the human voice can be loved, can be held, can be respected.”
Voices of legacy
VOICE GEMS 1000 Year Archive has immortalised voices from across generations: Herbert W. Franke, a pioneer of computational art, Sir Geoff Hurst, the 1966 World Cup hat-trick scorer, and Dr. Jane Goodall, whose recorded message for Earth echoes through one of these radiant forms.
From Code to Culture forum 2025
This year, the philosophy behind VOICE GEMS aligns seamlessly with the ASEAN-Korea Innovative Culture Forum 2025: “From Code to Culture — Inclusive AI for Cultural Sustainability”.
Held in Singapore, the forum explores how technology can serve not only progress but also preservation, ensuring that AI amplifies cultural identity rather than erases it. Projects like VOICE GEMS exemplify this vision: technology used to celebrate diversity, preserve memory, and reimagine inclusion through art.
