An AI “mind-reading” tool can reconstruct what you’re looking at based on a brain scan
Researchers have developed an AI tool capable of reconstructing images from human brain scans, potentially allowing for the visualization of thoughts or dreams. While the technology shows promise for medical communication, experts raise ethical concerns regarding privacy and consent.
Why it matters
It highlights the rapid advancement of neuro-technology and the urgent need for ethical frameworks regarding cognitive privacy.
Scientists hope it could be used to reconstruct a person’s inner thoughts, mental images or even their dreams.
A new AI tool can guess what you’re looking at just by analyzing your brain scans—and recreate that image with remarkable precision. It can go the other way too, and predict a person’s brain activity based on what they’re looking at.
In the image above, for example, the left-hand image of each pair is what the user actually saw—and its right-hand counterpart is what the model recreated based on the brain scan.
Michal Irani, who developed the tool with her colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, hopes her “mindreading” tool will ultimately reveal more about how the brain works, and could perhaps be used to help locked-in people communicate, or allow scientists to recreate the content of dreams.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in