Scientists invent brain-computer chip capable of reading human minds

A chip in the brain. Photo: Jim Gensheimer

Researchers from Stanford University have developed an experimental a brain-computer interface (BCI) device capable of translating human thoughts into text. The implant was correct up to 74% of the time.

BCIs work by connecting a person’s nervous system to devices that can interpret their brain activity, allowing them to take action like using a computer or moving a prosthetic hand with only their thoughts.

“This is the first time we’ve managed to understand what brain activity looks like when you just think about speaking,” said Erin Kunz, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at Stanford University in the United States.

Four people, who had microelectrodes implanted in the motor cortex of the brain, the part responsible for speech, participated in the experiment. Participants were asked either to attempt to speak or to imagine pronouncing certain words. Artificial intelligence was trained to interpret the words that participants thought but did not say. In the demonstration, the brain chip was able to translate imagined sentences with an accuracy of up to 74%.

Notably, researchers also tested a password system to prevent unauthorized decoding of innner speech. The system recognised the password with around 99 per cent accuracy.

Frank Willett, co-author of the study and assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University, stated: "This work gives real hope that speech BCIs can one day restore communication that is as fluent, natural, and comfortable as conversational speech."

For now, brain chips cannot interpret inner speech without significant guardrails. But the researchers said more advanced models may be able to do so in the future.

As the UOJ reported earlier, according to Musk, people will have the ability for high-speed thought exchange.

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