This is another in a series of audio posts, created by a human (Dr. Neil Leveridge) with the generous assistance of AI—nudged, tweaked, and occasionally overridden by the machine. Inspired by Laurie Anderson’s knack for turning meaning inside out, this piece plays with the idea of education, authority, and what happens when we stop pretending the old system was working.

The soundscape, titled “Fractal” was composed by Romeo from Artlist.io and gently massaged into place, the narration was generated through Artlist.io’s AI voice tools, and the final edit—after much side-eyeing of tradition—was completed in Camtasia.

The Future is a Voice: Is That Me Okay?

by Dr. Neil Leveridge
Posted on February 2025

There was always something about my own voice that never sat right with me. Too flat. Too sharp. Too hesitant. Too certain. It never quite matched the cadence I heard in my head. And music? Well, let’s just say I wasn’t blessed with that particular frequency. I idolized how musician/artist Laurie Anderson was able to use her voice, and her voice resonated with me, her words resonated with me, with me, her artistry just stuck.

And yet, here we are.

A piece of music, gently massaged into place. A narration, tuned just right. A script—mine, but somehow more than mine. Collaboratively mine.

The Future is a Voice

🎤 A voice speaks. A voice commands. A voice persuades.
🎼 But a voice is also a barrier. A threshold. A filter through which ideas pass—or don’t.

For years, I had thoughts about teaching, about the strange rituals we mistake for education, about the quiet absurdities baked into the system. But a thought, unspoken, is just a whisper in a locked room. What happens when the door is finally open?

AI didn’t give me these ideas. They were already there—shaped by the classroom, by the system, by the moments when teaching felt like it was about everything except learning.

But AI gave me a way to express them without years of study in voice training, sound design, or composition. It didn’t just smooth out my voice—it let me step outside of it. It built the stage, arranged the instruments, and handed me the microphone.

And for the first time, I liked the way it sounded.

Is That Me Okay?

The conversation around AI in education so often focuses on fear. Will it replace teachers? Will it make students lazy? Will it turn learning into just another automated process?

But for some of us, AI isn’t replacing creativity—it’s revealing it. It’s giving shape to the things we always wanted to say but never had the tools to share.

For me, AI has done something simple, yet profound: It has given me a voice, a talent, and time.

Time I would have spent struggling to compose a soundtrack.
Time I would have lost trying to train my voice into something it’s not.
Time I now have to focus on what actually matters—the ideas themselves.

So, is that me okay?

Or is this the most “me” I’ve ever been?