The Download: AI “mind-reading” and creative uses for small batteries
Researchers have developed an AI tool capable of reconstructing images from human brain scans, raising both scientific potential and ethical concerns regarding mental privacy. Additionally, the newsletter discusses the shift toward using smaller, consumer-focused batteries to alleviate grid pressure.
Why it matters
Advancements in brain-computer interfaces and decentralized energy storage represent significant shifts in how technology interacts with human cognition and infrastructure.
Plus: the Pentagon has tapped Elon Musk to co-lead a future warfare project.
This is today's edition of The Download , our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.
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.
The researchers hope the “mindreading” tool could reveal more about how the brain works. It could also help locked-in people communicate and, incredibly, maybe even allow scientists to recreate the content of dreams.
But other scientists warn that a similar approach could reveal people’s inner thoughts and mental imagery, potentially without their consent.
Here’s how AI is getting closer to reading images from the brain .
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