Scientists have developed a way to read minds, translating unspoken thoughts into written words. It's the first time it's been done without having to put anything into the brain. They used artificial intelligence (AI) (人工智能). It is the name given to a computer system that is able to "think" for itself and carry out tasks that usually require human intelligence.
Scientists used a special scanner (扫描器). The machine can see where blood runs, which shows the parts of the brain that are most active. People taking part in the experiment (实验) listened to the radio for 16 hours as their brains were scanned. The AI tool learned to connect certain brain activity with words they heard. After that, each person was asked to think of a story, and the AI tool managed to pick up these thoughts as they happened.
The results had about a 50% accuracy rate (准确率), although the AI found it hard to work out the meaning of pronouns, such as he or she, her or him. For example, it turned "I don't have my driver's license yet" into "She has not even started to learn to drive yet." It could usually understand the meaning of what someone was thinking rather than the exact words. The AI was personalized, so when it had learnt from one person but it was tested on another, it couldn't understand their thoughts.
The scientists, who have been working on the technology for 15 years, say they understand the risks of it being used badly. Scientist Jerry Tang told a newspaper, "We want to make sure people only use these types of technologies when they want to, and that it helps them." The scientists hope it will help people with certain medical conditions, who are still awake but have lost the ability to speak, to communicate once again.
