Despite its overwhelming success, the human brain peaked about two million years ago. Lucky for us, computers are helping us understand our brains better, but there may be some consequences to giving AI a skeleton key to our mind. A team of Japanese researchers recently conducted a series of experiments in creating an end-to-end solution for training a neural network to interpret fMRI scans. Where previous work achieved similar results, the difference in the new method involves how the AI is trained. An fMRI is a non-invasive and safe brain scan similar to a normal MRI.

Thomas Reardon puts a terrycloth stretch band with microchips and electrodes woven into the fabric--a steampunk version of jewelry--on each of his forearms. "This demo is a mind fuck," says Reardon, who prefers to be called by his surname only. He sits down at a computer keyboard, fires up his monitor, and begins typing. After a few lines of text, he pushes the keyboard away, exposing the white surface of a conference table in the midtown Manhattan headquarters of his startup. Only this time he is typing on…nothing. Yet the result is the same: The words he taps out appear on the monitor. Steven Levy is Backchannel's founder and Editor in Chief.

There are now two such buses, each of which can take up to six people the 200 meters over a bridge between the Lyon and Austerlitz train stations. The buses will be test-trialed for the next three months in a designated lane, without entering Paris' busy traffic. The city's authorities consider the new driverless buses a breakthrough. "Autonomous vehicles represent a revolution for every city on the planet... which will change our urban environment and public space in a spectacular fashion over the next 20 years," Paris Deputy Mayor Jean-Louis Missika told reporters. Although Paris has one of the best public transport systems in the world, like most capitals, it is difficult to reach from the suburbs, turning each morning commute into an ordeal.