"'Mind-Reading' AI Turns Thoughts Into Spoken Words" - Alan Mozes
Researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) to turn brain signals into computer-generated speech. Epilepsy patients were outfitted with various types of brain electrodes as part of their seizure treatment, allowing researchers to conduct very sensitive brain monitoring called electrocorticography. The end result is a huge milestone, according to researchers, who were able to reconstruct intelligible computer generated sounds from the brain. Brain activity was tracked while each participant listened to short stories and number lists. Brain signal patterns were then fed into a computer algorithm. The final product was a sequence of robotically voiced audio tracks -- both male and female -- that articulated numbers between zero and nine. Thomas Oxley, MD, PhD, director of innovation strategy in the department of neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said the ability of AI to read a person’s brain “raises significant ethical issues around privacy and security that research leaders need to be cognizant of." Still, Dr. Oxley suggested the breakthrough “is an important step along the pathway of decoding brain patterns that underlie thinking."
— Thomas Oxley, MD, PhD, Director, Innovation Strategy, Neurosurgery, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Professor, Neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai