Artificial intelligence makes it possible for people who have hindered limb movement or are paralyzed to communicate by text using data interpretation from devices placed at the brain's surface. The fusion of human brainpower and ultra-modern AI technology has allowed a man with paralyzed limbs to communicate using text on a smartphone at nearing speed achieved by his healthy body parts. Researchers from Stanford University have integrated artificial intelligence software with an electronic device, called a brain-computer interface (BCI), rooted in the brain of a man with full-body paralysis. The robust AI software has decoded the BCI information and instantly transforms the man's feelings about handwriting into text on a computer screen. After this integration, the man wrote using this technology more than twice as fast as he could using a former system developed by Stanford researchers, which reported the findings in a 2017 journal.

The combination of mental effort and state-of-the-art technology have allowed a man with immobilized limbs to communicate by text at speeds rivaling those achieved by his able-bodied peers texting on a smartphone. Stanford University investigators have coupled artificial-intelligence software with a device, called a brain-computer interface, implanted in the brain of a man with full-body paralysis. The software was able to decode information from the BCI to quickly convert the man's thoughts about handwriting into text on a computer screen. The man was able to write using this approach more than twice as quickly as he could using a previous method developed by the Stanford researchers, who reported those findings in 2017 in the journal eLife. The new findings, published online May 12 in Nature, could spur further advances benefiting hundreds of thousands of Americans, and millions globally, who've lost the use of their upper limbs or their ability to speak due to spinal-cord injuries, strokes or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, said Jaimie Henderson, MD, professor of neurosurgery.