AI Is Helping Us Read Minds, But Should We?
Computational neuroscientists paired imaging technology with a version of ChatGPT to decode thoughts, opening up exciting (and scary) prospects.
What’s on your mind?
Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Since mind reading has only existed in the realms of fantasy and fiction, it seems fair to apply the phrase to a system that uses brain scan data to decipher stories that a person has read, heard, or even just imagined. It’s the latest in a series of spooky linguistic feats fueled by artificial intelligence, and it’s left people wondering what kinds of nefarious uses humanity will find for such advances.
Even the lead researcher on the project, computational neuroscientist Alexander Huth, called his team’s sudden success with using noninvasive functional magnetic resonance imaging to decode thoughts “kind of terrifying” in the pages of Science.