An artificial intelligence can decode words and sentences from brain activity with surprising — but still limited — accuracy. Using only a few seconds of brain activity data, the AI guesses what a person has heard. It lists the correct answer in its top 10 possibilities up to 73 percent of the time, researchers found in a preliminary study.
Developed at the parent company of Facebook, Meta, the AI could eventually be used to help thousands of people around the world unable to communicate through speech, typing or gestures, including many patients in minimally conscious, locked-in or “vegetative states”.
Most existing technologies to help such patients communicate require risky brain surgeries to implant electrodes. This new approach could provide a viable path to help patients with communication deficits … without the use of invasive methods.
This non-invasive method uses Magnetoencephalography (MEG) or Electroencephalography. With MEG the correct answer was in the AI’s top 10 guesses up to 73 percent of the time, and with electroencephalography, that value dropped to no more than 30 percent. The MEG performance is very good but it's use has practical limitations as MEG requires a bulky & expensive machine.
The AI seems to perform above expected at this stage by using only 3 seconds of data from the brain.
Developed at the parent company of Facebook, Meta, the AI could eventually be used to help thousands of people around the world unable to communicate through speech, typing or gestures, including many patients in minimally conscious, locked-in or “vegetative states”.
Most existing technologies to help such patients communicate require risky brain surgeries to implant electrodes. This new approach could provide a viable path to help patients with communication deficits … without the use of invasive methods.
This non-invasive method uses Magnetoencephalography (MEG) or Electroencephalography. With MEG the correct answer was in the AI’s top 10 guesses up to 73 percent of the time, and with electroencephalography, that value dropped to no more than 30 percent. The MEG performance is very good but it's use has practical limitations as MEG requires a bulky & expensive machine.
The AI seems to perform above expected at this stage by using only 3 seconds of data from the brain.
