Meta’s AI can read your mind
Artificial intelligence decodes words and sentences from brain waves
A new artificial intelligence (AI) platform can “hear” what you’re thinking, decoding brain activity into words and sentences in seconds. A new study says the computing platform correctly predicts the right answer up to 73 percent of the time.
The technology was developed by researchers at Meta (the parent company of Facebook), originally intended as a tool to help support those trapped in a vegetative state and unable to speak.
Known as “unresponsive wakefulness syndrome”, neuroscientists have found that patients in this state exhibit complex patterns of brain activity, thought to be signature markers of consciousness.
Our understanding of consciousness is rather fuzzy. We know when it’s there and when it fades away as we sleep, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. However, a full definition of consciousness — and how our brains create it — still eludes neuroscientists.
Nevertheless, AI could help us bridge the gap, particularly for conscious people lacking the ability to interact with the world around them. Technologies that attempt to do this have been developed, but they often require high risk brain surgeries to implant electrodes into the patients’ brains for them to work.
