Mind reading: Long a science fiction fantasy, today an increasingly concrete scientific goal. Researchers at Stanford University have succeeded in decoding internal language in real time thanks to a brain implant and artificial intelligence. A technological feat with promising applications, but also dizzying ethical implications.
An unprecedented technological advance
For the first time, a team of neuroscientists has succeeded in translating silent thoughts in real time – that is, what a person thinks they are saying without moving their lips or making a sound. This technology is based on a brain-machine interface (BMI), a brain implant equipped with microelectrodes that is inserted into the motor cortex – the area of the brain responsible for language.
Unlike previous devices that required patients to physically pronounce words, this new device directly decodes the neural activity of internal language. Combined with an artificial intelligence system, the implant achieves 74% accuracy in transcribing imaginary sentences. A world first!
"This is the first time we've understood what brain activity looks like when a person is simply thinking about talking," said Erin Kunz, lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Cell.
A revolution for paralyzed patients
The study participants – who suffered from severe paralysis due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or a stroke – were able to communicate through thoughts. They imagined saying sentences that the algorithm analyzed phoneme by phoneme to reconstruct words and then related messages.
This technology could give language back to people who had lost their language by providing them with a fluid, fast and non-exhaustive means of communication. Professor Frank Willett, co-author of the study, points out that "this system could soon allow for a complete reconstruction of language based solely on thought."
A medical miracle … with ethical limits
Mind reading, however, raises a question: How far can – or should – you go? During tests, researchers found that the implant could sometimes intercept unwanted thoughts – words that the participants had not consciously expressed. This permeability between private thoughts and communicative intention represents a major data protection problem.
"The further we progress, the more transparent our brains become. We are entering an era of cerebral transparency, where it is becoming more urgent to set boundaries," warns lawyer and bioethicist Nita Farahany in an interview with NPR.
This revolutionary implant is not only a scientific achievement: it also forces us to rethink our right to privacy, freedom of thought, and mental security. What happens outside the regulated medical environment as technology becomes more precise and accessible?
"The line between private thoughts and voluntary expression of opinion is blurred. It's important to ensure that users have full control over what they share. The mind must remain a sanctuary," Cohen Marcus Lionel Brown, a bioethicist at Wollongong University, told the New York Times.
A technical answer: the mental password
To prevent involuntary mind leaks, the Stanford team implemented a mental blocking system. Certain thoughts could only be decrypted by the system with a mental password, such as an activation key. In the study, the phrase "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was used as a password. The system could only decipher private thoughts if this sentence was mentally activated. The success rate of this filtering is over 98%.
In conclusion, brain-machine interfaces represent a great step forward for people with disabilities. In the long term, they could also revolutionize the way we interact with our devices – phones, computers, vehicles – through thoughts alone. However, as the researchers themselves emphasize, every technical step must be accompanied by a strict ethical framework. The future of neural communication may already be here – but it must be designed with caution.
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