Mind Hunter: Scientists develop ChatGPT-like tool that turns people’s thoughts into text in real-time

Thanks to a bunch of engineers and scientists from the University of Texas, AI-based mind-reading technology can now transcribe people’s thoughts in real time based on cerebral blood flow. Three people were placed in MRI scanners and asked to listen to stories.

Researchers claim to have created a rolling text of people’s thoughts, rather of simply single words or sentences, for the first time without utilising a brain implant. The mind-reading device did not precisely recreate the stories, but it did catch the key aspects.

The discovery raises concerns about mental privacy since it might be the first step towards being able to listen in on other people’s thoughts. The system, which was similar to ChatGPT, also translated what individuals saw when they viewed silent films or their thoughts when they imagined narrating a narrative.

Newly developed AI tool works well but has issues
However, the researchers point out that it took 16 hours of training in an MRI machine with someone listening to podcasts for the computer model to understand their brain patterns and interpret what they were thinking.

People were also able to “sabotage” the device by mentally reciting the names of animals to prevent it from reading their thoughts. Jerry Tang, the study’s principal author from the University of Texas at Austin, said he couldn’t show that the technology doesn’t have the ability to eavesdrop on people’s thoughts in the future and that it may be “misused” now.

“We take very seriously the fears that it may be exploited for negative reasons,” he added. “And we want to devote a lot of work coming forward to try to avoid it, he added.” 

“I think that right now, while technology is still in its early stages, it’s vital to be proactive and get a head start on, for example, creating regulations that safeguard people’s mental privacy, providing them a right to their thoughts and brain data,” he continued. “We want to make sure that individuals only use things when they want to and that it benefits them.”

Silicon Valley’s interest is piqued
Silicon Valley is highly interested in mind-reading technology, which might one day allow individuals to type just by imagining the words they wish to transmit. Elon Musk’s business, Neuralink, is developing a brain implant that will allow direct contact with computers.

However, the new technology is unique in its field in that it reads thoughts without the use of a brain implant, requiring no surgery. While currently, it requires a bulky, expensive MRI machine, in the future people might wear patches on their heads which use waves of light to penetrate into the brain and provide information on blood flow.

This might allow for the detection of people’s thoughts as they walk around. The latest study, which was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, employed a “decoder,” which combines a computer model to understand people’s brain activity with language-processing technology akin to ChatGPT to assist produce probable phrases.

After hours of practice, the decoder could guess what individuals were thinking roughly half of the time. That meant it generated text that closely, and sometimes exactly, matched the words people were hearing – all while using only their brain activity.

For example, one individual who heard a speaker remark, “I don’t have my driver’s licence yet,” had their ideas translated as “she hasn’t even begun to learn to drive yet.”

A lot of potential benefits for patients
According to the researchers, the innovation might benefit patients who are intellectually aware but unable to talk, such as stroke sufferers or those suffering from motor neurone disease.

It works when individuals think of any word, not simply those on a list, unlike previous mind-reading devices, albeit it suffers with pronouns like “he” and “I.” Unlike previous comparable technologies, it detects activity in language-forming areas of the brain, as opposed to how someone imagines moving their lips to make specific words.

“We were sort of amazed that this worked as well as it did,” said Dr Alexander Huth, senior author of the research from the University of Texas in Austin. “I’ve been working on this problem for 15 years,” he added. “For a non-invasive procedure, this is a huge leap ahead compared to what’s been done previously, which has often been single words or brief phrases,” he noted.

Concerned that the technology could be used on someone without their knowledge, such as by an authoritarian regime interrogating political prisoners or an employer spying on employees, the researchers say the system can only read an individual’s thoughts after being trained on their thought patterns and thus could not be used on someone secretly.

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