Mind-reading brain chip with 74% accuracy: Blessing or nightmare?

Stanford scientists have just announced a brain chip that can translate thoughts into text with up to 74% accuracy, opening up hope of communication for the disabled, but also raising concerns about mind reading.

An experimental brain implant has shown the ability to read human thoughts, converting words in the head into text.

In an initial test, the Stanford team used a brain-computer interface (BCI) to decode sentences that participants thought but did not say aloud. The device achieved 74% accuracy.

New brain chip opens up hope of communication for people with disabilities. Photo: Canva

BCI works by connecting the nervous system to a device that decodes brain signals, allowing computers or prosthetic limbs to be controlled with just thoughts. This technology opens up opportunities for people with disabilities to regain independence.

One of the most famous BCIs is Elon Musk's Neuralink, which is currently in clinical trials to test its safety in patients with limited mobility.

The new research, published in the journal Cell, is considered a milestone. “This is the first time we understand what brain activity looks like when you just think about speaking,” said Stanford researcher Erin Kunz.

The team implanted microelectrodes into the motor cortex, which controls speech, of four test participants. When they tried to speak or simply imagined speaking, the brain signals recorded showed significant overlap.

Scientists then trained the artificial intelligence (AI) model to decode words that participants only thought in their heads but did not say out loud.

In one test, the brain chip was able to accurately translate up to 74% of imagined sentences, marking a major step forward in efforts to turn thoughts into text.

In another case, the team set a password so that the chip could not “eavesdrop” on thoughts. The system only translated speech when the participant thought of the password first. The recognition rate was 99% correct, and the password chosen was “Chitty chitty bang bang”.

However, brain chips still need many technical “guardrails” to prevent the risk of privacy invasion. Experts say that if this technology develops too quickly, big ethical questions will arise: who controls brain data and where to draw the line between medical assistance and human surveillance.

“This work offers hope that BCI could one day restore communication as natural, fluent and comfortable as everyday speech,” said study co-author Frank Willett.

(According to Euronews)

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Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/chip-nao-doc-y-nghi-chinh-xac-toi-74-phuoc-lanh-hay-ac-mong-2433706.html