Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Scientists succeed in 'mind-reading' using ChatGPT

 

A woman can be seen going into the MRI machine as the healthcare worker assist her. — Unsplash/File


Neuroscientists think they've discovered a means to verbalize brain activity with the use of Chat GPT, an AI-powered platform, which is a significant advancement for patients with diseases like "locked-in" syndrome and stroke who are unable to communicate.

The revolutionary Open AI human-like chatbot was employed by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin to demonstrate the applications of AI in the healthcare industry as the technology continues to develop and modernize, eventually affecting every aspect of our everyday life.
We prefer not to use the phrase "mind reading," according to Alexander Huth, assistant professor of neurology and computer science at the University of Texas at Austin. We believe it makes things appear that we are actually incapable of.

Professor Huth took part in the study and spent 20 hours confined in an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) equipment while listening to audio samples. The device was also taking precise pictures of his brain activity.


His brain activity and the audio he was listening to were examined by the AI system, which eventually allowed the technology to predict the words he was hearing just by keeping an eye on his brain.

The chatGPT-1 model from Open AI, which amassed a sizable library of publications and websites, was the technology employed by the researchers.

The researchers discovered that by examining mental activity, the AI system successfully predicted what participants were watching and listening to.

Though still in its early phases, the technology has potential. Additionally, it emphasizes the difficulty of mind-reading by AI.

Huth stated that the actual potential use of this is in aiding those who are unable to communicate.
According to the researchers, patients with "locked-in" syndrome, stroke victims, and others whose brains are functioning but they are unable to communicate may employ this technology in the future.

"Ours is the first instance where we show that without a brain operation, we can get this level of precision. Therefore, we believe that this is sort of the first step towards genuinely assisting those who are mute without requiring them to have neurosurgery," he said.


Although the technology's results are encouraging, worries have also been expressed regarding how it might be applied in contentious situations.

The brain scans "must take place in an fMRI machine, the AI technology needs to be trained on a subject's brain for many hours, and subjects need to give their consent," the researchers observed.

It simply won't function if someone refuses to listen to the audio and does not think in accordance with the requirements.

According to Jerry Tang, the paper's primary author, "We believe that everyone's brain data should be kept private. One of the last unexplored areas of our privacy is kind of our minds.
Obviously, there are worries that brain decoding technology could be applied in harmful ways, says Tang.
"What we can get is the big ideas you're thinking about," said Huth. If you're attempting to tell a story to yourself, we can kind of get at the story that someone else is telling you.

Tang expressed worries to CNN, saying that in order to preserve "brain data"—our thoughts—legislators needed to take "mental privacy" seriously. This is one of the more dismal ideas I've heard in the age of AI.
"It's important not to get a false sense of security and think that things will be this way forever," Tang cautioned.

"As technology advances, it may affect both our ability to decode and whether decoders need human cooperation."

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