Artificial intelligence turns brain activity into words

Although still at an early stage, this breakthrough can make it easier for people with diseases like ALS to communicate.

ALS is the abbreviation for the phrase Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, roughly translated. This is one of the strange but extremely dangerous diseases that people have ever recorded.

ALS causes movements not to transmit signals to muscles such as the legs, arms, chest . When muscle cells do not receive signals from the brain and marrow, they lose their strength, muscle fades and eventually die completely. The moment the muscle is no longer active, the patient will no longer be able to survive.

This technology will help people with diseases like ALS communicate more easily.

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking is one of ALS's many known victims. To communicate, must communicate through the use of cheek muscles. However, if technology turns brain activity into words based on success, patients with ALS syndrome may have a new and easier way of communicating.

This technology basically works in a way: the patient performs thoughts or words (by brain) on a machine. This machine can understand brain signals and based on AI they will tell what the patient wants to say.

Researchers from three groups obtained brain activity data in brain tumor removal surgeries or through electrodes grown in the brain of epilepsy patients to determine the source of the seizure, and then train AI to translate data into words.

The results are quite satisfactory despite being in the early stages, the content is 'translated' that listeners can understand about 40% to 80% of the content temporarily.

At the present time, computers can only be trained once for each individual because the speech translation signals are different between individuals. At the same time, for AI to work properly, the technology requires contact with the brain not through the skull (this is a very large limit).

Another limitation is that the technology does not distinguish between the brain and the thoughts that the brain wants to emit from the mouth.