Mind-Blowing AI Breakthrough Could Give Sight to the Blind and Voice to the Deaf, Neuroscientist Says
Imagine a world where AI not only fixes paralysis but also reads minds! 🧠 That’s the wild possibility unveiled by a top-notch California neuroscientist talking to Fox News. Hold onto your hats, folks, because this is no sci-fi flick; this is real-life magic in the making!
Let’s meet Ann Johnson, a Canadian teacher hit by a stroke that stole her voice in 2005. But guess what? She’s chatting away again, thanks to some brainy AI wizardry. This isn’t about having a chit-chat with robots; it’s like plugging into her thoughts and letting an AI version of her voice do the talking. Crazy, right?
Alright, so here’s the geeky stuff: they put over 250 tiny doodads (they call ’em electrodes) on Ann’s brain, connected ’em to some super-smart computers via a fancy head port, and ta-da! The computers translated her brain signals into words. Yeah, you heard me, AI-generated words coming straight from her noggin!
Sounds complicated, huh? Well, hold your horses. Dr. Eddie Chang, brainiac extraordinaire from the University of California, San Francisco, says this isn’t rocket science. He even hinted at fixing vision and hearing problems with similar AI magic. Not to burst your bubble, but mind-reading is still a bit far-off. But hey, the idea’s out there, folks!
Hold up, there’s more! Dr. Chang and his dream team aren’t just playing with Ann’s brain waves for kicks. They’ve got some science to back this up. Teaming up with brainy pals from the University of California, Berkeley, they made a brain-to-words dictionary. Seriously! They cracked the code of turning brain signals into actual speech and expressions. 🗣️😲
Not convinced yet? Well, the brain party didn’t stop in California. A gang of brainy scientists from the University of Texas pulled off their own brainy stunt. They popped people into MRI machines and had ’em listen to podcasts. The brain scans turned into computer lessons, teaching machines to talk brain. Then, they played new stories, and guess what? The computers sort of got the gist! 🧠📚
But wait, rewind a bit. Five years ago, we’d have laughed at the thought of computers understanding brain chatter. It’s like cracking a million neuron codes and turning them into words – seriously complex stuff. That’s why AI is the secret sauce. It takes the cryptic brain signals and dishes out words like a word-savvy wizard.
Back to Ann: this AI chatterbox helped her go from 15 words a minute (snail pace, right?) to nearly 80 words. Still not speed-of-light talk, but way better! Regular convo speed? About 160 words a minute. 🐌🚀
Hold on to your thoughts, because this mind-reading chatter ain’t just about science. It’s about some big moral questions too. Dr. Chang’s waving the ethical flag, wondering how much of our thoughts we want tech to peek at. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, folks!
So, there you have it, the future’s creeping in. Imagine a world where minds aren’t just for thinking – they’re for chatting, shouting, and who knows what else? Are we ready for this futuristic roller coaster? Time to put on our tech thinking caps and ride it out! 🎢🤯