Scientists can now read your thoughts: AI turns people's thoughts into instant text

2023-05-03 2023-05-03T13:48:44Z

Weather of Arabia - People's thoughts have always been a mysterious mystery that a person seeks to understand so that he can read others' thoughts, and this is what was revealed by a new study on mind-reading technology, where scientists were able to copy people's thoughts in real time based on the blood flow in their brains, according to what was reported British Daily Mail newspaper.

The study's experiments included placing 3 people in MRI machines to measure the speed of blood flow, while their thoughts were heard and interpreted by a "decoder", which includes a computer model to interpret people's brain activity and language processing technology similar to ChatGPT to help. in creating potential words.

Indeed, the new technology succeeded in reading the main points of what was going on in the minds of the participants. Although the reading is not 100% identical, it is the first time of its kind, according to the University of Texas researchers, that a circulating text, rather than just individual words or sentences, has been produced without the use of a brain implant.

Concerns about mental privacy

This breakthrough raises concerns about "mental privacy" because it may be the first step in being able to eavesdrop on other people's thoughts, especially since the technology was able to interpret what each participant was seeing while watching silent films or imagining they were telling a story.

But the researchers explain that it took 16 hours of training, with people listening to podcasts while in an MRI machine, that the computer program was able to understand their brain patterns and interpret what they were thinking.

Jerry Tang, lead author of the study from the University of Texas at Austin, said he could not establish a "false sense of security" that the technology might not have the ability to eavesdrop on people's thoughts in the future, and said it could be "misused" now.

But he said: "We take very seriously the concerns that it could be used for bad purposes, and we want to devote a lot of time to trying to avoid that." He continued, "We want to make sure that people only use it when they want to, and that it helps them."

He also expressed his belief that “at the present time, while technology is in such an early state, it is important to be proactive and start, for example, with policies that protect the mental privacy of human beings, give everyone the right to their thoughts and brain data, and not It is used for purposes other than helping oneself.”

Applying technology to a person in secret

Regarding concerns that the technology could be used on someone without their knowledge, the researchers say the system can only read an individual's thoughts after training them in their thought patterns, so it cannot be applied to someone in secret.

"If a person doesn't want to decode an idea from their brain, they can simply control it using only their awareness - they can think of other things, and then everything collapses," said lead researcher Alexander Huth, from the University of Texas, co-author of the study. Some participants did, however, mislead the technology by using methods such as mentally listing the names of animals, to prevent it from reading their thoughts.

In addition, the new technology is relatively unfamiliar in its field, that is, in the field of reading thoughts without using any kind of brain implants, and it is characterized by the fact that there will be no need for surgery.

Although at the current stage it requires a large and expensive MRI machine, in the future people may wear patches on their heads that use waves of light to penetrate the brain and provide information about blood flow, which may allow the detection of people's thoughts as they move.

Technology may help some people

The researchers hope the breakthrough could help people with disabilities, stroke victims or motor neuron patients who have mental awareness but are unable to speak.

Unlike other mind-reading techniques, the technique works when a person thinks of a word, not just matching the thoughts to those on a specific list. The technology relies on detecting activity in the language-forming regions of the brain, unlike other similar technologies that typically detect how someone imagines moving their mouth to form specific words.

"It's a real leap forward compared to what's been done before, especially since it doesn't require surgery, it doesn't just interpret loose words or sentences," Huth said.