Scientists from Osaka University, Japan have discovered a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to read our minds – quite literally.
By combining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with AI technology, the researchers were able to recreate visual images directly from human brain activity. What’s more, by using widely available Stable Diffusion technology, they were able to do so at a very low cost and with relatively little effort compared to other recent attempts to do this. The researchers’ findings are reported in a pre-print study.
Although researchers had already found ways to convert neural imaging into visual representations, complex and expensive deep-learning technology has generally been required. Technology which must be “trained” and carefully calibrated. Still, the representations produced are often sketchy, with poor fidelity.
The new method used by the Japanese researchers harnesses popular technology which has found widespread use in the generation of images using linguistic prompts. Over the last few months, social media platforms have been awash with images created using Stable Diffusion and other platforms like it. The technology is able to produce compelling, sometimes hyperrealistic images, with just a few carefully selected words. The technology can be used to produce static images or, with some tweaking, animations in popular styles such as anime.