AI mind-reading tool reconstructs images from brain scans
scientists develop ai tool that can recreate images seen by a person based on their brain scans, with potential applications in helping locked-in people communicate and understanding how the brain works.
a team led by michal irani at the weizmann institute of science developed an ai 'mind-reading' tool that can reconstruct images seen by a person based on their brain scans. the tool was trained on data from eight people who were shown around 9,000 images while in a high-resolution fMRI scanner. it uses a diffusion model and has two branches to predict the structure and content of an image. while it has potential applications in helping locked-in people communicate and understanding how the brain works, other scientists warn that similar approaches could be used to reveal inner thoughts and mental imagery without consent.