--- title: Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free description: Intel hopes developers will innovate and expand on the base system canonical: https://time.com/4005447/stephen-hawking-speech/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-20T20:34:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:37.967Z article:section: Science og:title: Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free og:description: Intel hopes developers will innovate and expand on the base system og:url: https://time.com/4005447/stephen-hawking-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8266b99259a1edf4/6988604bcf40a8721ac3f54c/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cambridge Film Festival: "Hawking" - Opening Night Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free twitter:description: Intel hopes developers will innovate and expand on the base system twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8266b99259a1edf4/6988604bcf40a8721ac3f54c/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free ## Video: 10 Questions for Stephen Hawking [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Stephen Hawking](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/e2C6Witp.m3u8) (4:47)  _Published 2010-11-04. The renowned physicist has a new book, The Grand Design. Stephen Hawking will now take your questions._ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 20, 2015 8:34 PM UTC  Professor Stephen Hawking attends the gala screening of "Hawking" on the opening night of the Cambridge Film Festival held at Emmanuel College on September 19, 2013 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. Professor Stephen Hawking attends the gala screening of "Hawking" on the opening night of the Cambridge Film Festival held at Emmanuel College on September 19, 2013 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.Karwai Tang—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 20, 2015 8:34 PM UTC Intel has released the software Stephen Hawking uses to communicate available for free online. The famed author and physicists relies on the technology to speak, as well as perform other basic functions like browsing the internet. Hawking, 73, suffers from motor neuron disease, or Leu Gehrig’s disease, which has left him almost entirely paralyzed. Intel hopes that it can assist others with similar disabilities. Code for the software, called [Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit](https://01.org/acat) (ACAT), is available to developers for free. By open sourcing the program, Intel believes developers will innovate and expand on the base system. Hawking got an upgrade from the computing giant last year, increasing the efficiency of his system. ACAT’s upgrade works much like the predictive type features on an iPhone, allowing the software to guess what Hawking is trying to say based on what he’s already typed. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4005447/stephen-hawking-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4005447/stephen-hawking-speech/"},"headline":"Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free","datePublished":"2015-08-20T20:34:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:37.967Z","description":"Intel hopes developers will innovate and expand on the base system","url":"https://time.com/4005447/stephen-hawking-speech/","keywords":["Software","Tech","Stephen Hawking","Intel"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8266b99259a1edf4/6988604bcf40a8721ac3f54c/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8266b99259a1edf4/6988604bcf40a8721ac3f54c/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cambridge Film Festival: \"Hawking\" - Opening Night Premiere","caption":"Cambridge Film Festival: \"Hawking\" - Opening Night Premiere","creditText":"Karwai Tang—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/software/","name":"Software"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4005447/stephen-hawking-speech/","name":"Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions for Stephen Hawking","description":"The renowned physicist has a new book, The Grand Design. 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