Imagine this: You're sitting silently, thinking about how much you really need a coffee… and BOOM - an AI decodes your brain signals and types it out for you.
Sounds like science fiction? Nope. It’s real.💪
A year and a half ago, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with NIH, introduced something straight out of sci-fi: an AI-powered brain decoder that could translate thoughts into words - no surgery, no implants.
Fast forward to today, and this tech is still making waves. So, how does it actually work, and where is it headed? Let’s break it down.
Step 1: Scanning the Brain
Using fMRI (functional MRI), scientists track blood flow to different brain regions. When you think of a specific word or idea, certain areas light up.
Step 2: Training the AI
Researchers had participants listen to hours of stories while monitoring their brain activity. The AI then learned which brain signals correspond to different words and meanings.
Step 3: Decoding Thoughts
When given new brain activity data, the AI reconstructed sentences based on what a person was actively thinking. It wasn’t a perfect word-for-word translation, but it captured the general meaning surprisingly well.
Example: If someone thought, "I want a coffee," the AI might generate "I need a hot drink to wake up.”😂