If you are willing to lie very still in a giant metal tube for 16 hours and let magnets blast your brain as you listen, rapt, to hit podcasts, a computer just might be able to read your mind. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin recently trained an AI model to decipher the gist of a limited range of sentences as individuals listened to them--gesturing toward a near future in which artificial intelligence might give us a deeper understanding of the human mind. The program analyzed fMRI scans of people listening to, or even just recalling, sentences from three shows: Modern Love, The Moth Radio Hour, and The Anthropocene Reviewed. Then, it used that brain-imaging data to reconstruct the content of those sentences. For example, when one subject heard "I don't have my driver's license yet," the program deciphered the person's brain scans and returned "She has not even started to learn to drive yet"--not a word-for-word re-creation, but a close approximation of the idea expressed in the original sentence.

'Outnumbered' hosts weigh in on the health of top Democrat leaders and discuss proposals for how to handle lawmakers who become unwell during service. The subjects of mental and physical competency in elected office has become a fierce debate in recent months. Back in February, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called for a mandatory cognitive test for politicians 75 and older, a not-so-subtle dig at 80-year-old President Biden and her 76-year-old GOP rival former President Trump. Poll after poll have shown voters, even among Democrats, increasingly concerned about Biden's age as he seeks reelection in 2024. And his presidency has not been short of gaffes, verbal stumbles and various memory lapses.

Neuralink has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the launch of its first clinical study in humans. "We are excited to share that we have received the FDA's approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study!" Neuralink's official Twitter account wrote on Thursday.(opens in a new tab) "This is the result of incredible work by the Neuralink team in close collaboration with the FDA and represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people." The neurotechnology company isn't recruiting test subjects just yet, and hasn't released any information on exactly what the clinical trial will involve. Even so, fans of Neuralink founder Elon Musk are already chomping(opens in a new tab) at(opens in a new tab) the(opens in a new tab) bit(opens in a new tab) to implant questionable experimental technology in their grey matter. Neuralink aims to develop implantable devices that will let people control computers with their brain, as well as restore vision or mobility to people with disabilities.

Turns out Elon Musk's FDA prediction was only off by about a month. After reportedly denying the company's overtures in March, the FDA approved Neuralink's application to begin human trials of its prototype Link brain-computer interface (BCI) on Thursday. Founded in 2016, Neuralink aims to commercialize BCIs in wide-ranging medical and therapeutic applications -- from stroke and spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation, to neural prosthetic controls, to the capacity "to rewind memories or download them into robots," Neuralink CEO Elon Musk promised in 2020. BCIs essentially translate the analog electrical impulses of your brain (monitoring it using hair-thin electrodes delicately threaded into that grey matter) into the digital 1's and 0's that computers understand. Since that BCI needs to be surgically installed in a patient's noggin, the FDA -- which regulates such technologies -- requires that companies conduct rigorous safety testing before giving its approval for commercial use.

Gert-Jan Oskam, paralyzed for 12 years, is able to walk again thanks to the brain-spine "digital bridge" interface developed at France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). A paralyzed man has regained the ability to walk thanks to artificial intelligence-powered implants that re-established communication between the brain and spinal cord, researchers said. "Now I can just do what I want – when I decide to make a step the stimulation will kick in as soon as I think about it," Gert-Jan Oskam said, adding that he now has "freedom that I did not have" and that between the surgeries and therapy, it has been "a long journey to get here." Oskam, a 40-year-old Dutchman, was left paralyzed following a cycling accident 12 years ago. He lost full use of his legs and partial use of his arms due to damage to the spinal cord in his neck.

Thomas Haigh (thomas.haigh@gmail.com) is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, WI, USA, and a Comenius visiting professor at Siegen University, Germany.

Today's powerful, robust SAT solvers have become primary tools for solving hard computational problems.

For many of us, hazard perception was one of the more fun and less nerve-wracking parts of the driving test. But if spotting the unexpected doesn't fall within your skillset, scientists warn you may experience'inattentional blindness'. Researchers at New York University (NYU) have recreated the classic'invisible gorilla test' from over 20 years ago in an effort to understand our capabilities. More than 1,500 participants were shown unsuspecting footage of six people throwing two basketballs between them. While viewers were asked to simply count how many times those wearing white pass the ball, this was not the real test at all.

AGI, while powerful, could have negative consequences, warned Diveplane CEO Mike Capps and Liberty Blockchain CCO Christopher Alexander. Artificial general intelligence – the kind of AI that has capabilities similar to humans – may be far off and offer new opportunities, but experts warn it could be potentially dangerous, and have drastic implications for white-collar workers. "I'm about as excited about AGI as I am about nuclear fission," Diveplane CEO Dr. Michael Capps told Fox News Digital. "It's really amazing what we can do with it, it can power our society, but in the wrong hands, it can do some really dangerous stuff." While there is no one definition of AGI, a 2020 report from consulting giant McKinsey said such a machine would need to master human-like skills, such as fine motor skills and natural language processing.

Sean Hannity dissects the failures of the Biden White House and how Democrats are "circling" back to Biden as their candidate for 2024 in his opening monologue Tuesday on "Hannity." SEAN HANNITY: Democrats are already circling the wagons around their 80-year-old corpse, Joe Biden, even though many have really serious doubts about his physical fitness, mental ability, cognitive ability. Even Hillary Clinton voiced concerns about Biden's age. But Joe's obvious cognitive decline is not his only problem. Long story-short, the far left staffers that are running Biden's White House have done an awful job.