Scientists are getting better at translating thoughts into speech

The secrets of mind reading could soon become available to the world—no more gatekeeping from psychics and Professor X.

A groundbreaking new brain-computer interface (BCI) granted a 47-year-old quadriplegic woman the ability to translate her thoughts into words in near-real time, according to a study published yesterday in Nature Neuroscience.

At issue: In recent years, several BCI speech-translation projects have reported breakthroughs in generating speech from thoughts.

But most existing methods require users to generate a complete chunk of text before software can decipher its meaning—similar to a back-and-forth iMessage convo, per scientists—which can significantly drag out the seconds between patients thinking the words and the program vocalizing them.

Becoming a smooth talker

The latest breakthrough research involved using a pre-trained AI model to analyze the patient’s brain activity in 80-millisecond increments, then translate it into a synthesized version of their voice.

• This new approach enables audible speech to be generated in near-real time as the subject is attempting to speak, with the AI’s predictive capabilities allowing for the patient’s speech to flow in a far more natural manner compared to other methods.
• The patient in the study was able to speak and respond at speeds up to 90 words/minute (for reference, normal conversation flows at ~150 words/minute).

Looking ahead…The study’s authors say their next goal is to improve the BCI system’s overall speed, as well as its performance over longer conversations.