Mind-reading AI can turn even imagined speech into spoken words

People with paralysis can now have their thoughts turned into speech just by imagining talking in their heads. While brain-computer interfaces can already decode the neural activity of people with paralysis when they physically attempt speaking, this can require a fair amount of effort. So Benyamin Meschede-Krasa at Stanford University and his colleagues sought a less energy-intensive approach. Take control of your brain's master switch to optimise how you think "We wanted to see whether there were similar patterns when someone was simply imagining speaking in their head," he says. "And we found that this could be an alternative, and indeed, a more comfortable way for people with paralysis to use that kind of system to restore their communication."