This AI can see what you're thinking -- and draw a picture of it

Scientists around the world are racing to be the first to develop artificially intelligent algorithms that can see inside our minds. The idea is not new: in the science fiction of the 1950s and 60s, crazed doctors were frequently seen putting weird contraptions on people's heads to decipher their thoughts. British TV serial Quatermass and the Pit -- in which such a machine is used to translate the thoughts of alien invaders -- is a prime example. Now reality is catching up with fantasy. In the past year, AI experts in China, the US and Japan have published research showing that computers can replicate what people are thinking about by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (or fMRI) machines -- which measure brain activity -- linked to deep neural networks, which replicate human brain functions.