A Brain Scanner Combined with an AI Language Model Can Provide a Glimpse into Your Thoughts

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May 02, 2023

A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine can record the brain in action, but these images don't tell the observer much about the thoughts that are causing that activity. An AI, on the other hand, can detect patterns that humans do not. In a new study, researchers trained an AI language model to "translate" fMRI images in order to reveal the stories that the brain's owner was listening to, or imagining telling, while in the scanner. Read more below!

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Artificial Intelligence A Brain Scanner Combined with an AI Language Model Can Provide a Glimpse into Your Thoughts New technology gleans the gist of stories a person hears while laying in a brain scanner By Allison Parshall

Automobiles What It Would Take for Electric Vehicles to Help Power the Grid A new bill in California proposes making electric vehicles a backup power source for the electric grid—an idea that has promise but has to overcome several technological hurdles, experts say By Anne C. Mulkern,E&E News

Arts How This AI Image Won a Major Photography Competition Boris Eldagsen submitted an artificial-intelligence-generated image to a photography contest as a “cheeky monkey” and sparked a debate about AI’s place in the art world By Allison Parshall

Biotech Proteins Never Seen in Nature Are Designed Using AI to Address Biomedical and Industrial Problems Unsolved by Evolution Bioengineers are drawing on rapidly evolving machine-learning tools, deep reservoirs of data and the firepower of a program called AlphaFold2 to pursue more sophisticated de novo protein designs By Michael Eisenstein,Nature magazine

Artificial Intelligence AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them Humans are building meaningful relationships with AI chatbots. What will the consequences be? By Sophie Bushwick,Kelso Harper | 12:24

Genetic Engineering Synthetic Morphology Lets Scientists Create New Life-Forms The emerging field of synthetic morphology bends boundaries between natural and artificial life By Philip Ball

Energy This Pioneering Nuclear Fusion Lab Is Gearing Up to Break More Records Here’s what’s next after the U.S. National Ignition Facility’s breakthrough on nuclear fusion last year By Jeff Tollefson,Nature magazine

Biotech Bionic Finger 'Sees' Inside Objects by Poking Them A robotic finger’s supersensitive touches could probe inside body parts and circuits By Simon Makin

Space Exploration SpaceX's Starship Fails Upward in Milestone Test Starship, a super powerful launch system that could revolutionize access to space, soared for mere minutes—but its test flight is still being hailed as a success By Meghan Bartels

Arts AI Can't Solve This Famous Murder Mystery Puzzle The 1934 puzzle book Cain’s Jawbone stumped all but a handful of humans. Then AI took the case By Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 328, Issue 5

QUOTE OF THE DAY "This emotional investment that we're making in our technologies also is a vulnerability, and it's a vulnerability that we have to be aware of and that we have to be ready to confront so that we are adequately protecting ourselves as we engage with these technologies." David Gunkel, Science Friday

FROM THE ARCHIVE 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: May 2023 King Tut’s bountiful tomb; music from fire By Mark Fischetti | May 2023

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