AI plus MRI yields the ability to recognize what the mind is hearing

System can also reconstruct speech a person imagines.

Ars Technica

.@arstechnica

Shares in aluminum mines soar

@apotropaet @arstechnica

Yeah, but aluminium is useless for this, the M in MRI stands for Magnetic. They need mu-metal shielding (and lots of it).

I'd be buying up stocks in iron and nickel miners myself.

@arstechnica
I can see some practical uses for this tech (after it matures and has become more accurate). Determining depth of injury for a person who suffered a traumatic head injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, or Alzheimer's. Determining if a person in a comatose state has any functional cognitive and/or reactive brain activity or if any brain activity is just autonomic in nature.

Interesting subject. Thanks.

@EvilGinger013 @arstechnica

It may just give someone with locked-in syndrome a voice. At the moment, those who are locked in have at best a very inefficient eye-gaze method of communication, or in some cases, basically can only indicate very rudimentary yes/no responses.

That said, permanently stationing a patient in a MRI machine is not practical, and a device portable enough to be used say, on a wheelchair could have unintended consequences.

@stuartl @arstechnica
I was talking about diagnostic uses. Not daily functional uses.
The tech is new- it will likely mature into practical diagnostic use long before it can be made to be practical for daily functional use for communications and things like "thought control" of smart devices.
@arstechnica
Interesting medical applications. I doubt any consumer tech will ever come this. The strength of the magnetic field required for MRI makes it impractical in any but the most controlled environments.
@arstechnica Well, the free thinkers are stuffed now! 😏