Explore Topics:
AIBiotechnologyRoboticsComputingFutureScienceSpaceEnergyTech
Artificial Intelligence

Reading People’s Actual Thoughts With a Machine

SingularityHub Staff
Jan 08, 2009
Reading People’s Actual Thoughts With a Machine

Share

60 Minutes just ran an excellent segment on how fMRI is being used by the Brain Image Analysis Research Group at Carnegie Mellon and elsewhere to literally read people's minds. The video below is a must see:

For those without the time or interest in watching the entire video, a short summary:

1.  Put someone's head in an fMRI machine and we can tell with increasing accuracy:

Be Part of the Future

Sign up to receive top stories about groundbreaking technologies and visionary thinkers from SingularityHub.

100% Free. No Spam. Unsubscribe any time.
  • the object they are thinking of (hammer, window, etc.)
  • determine whether a person has seen a location before (such as a crime scene) by showing them a picture of the scene and monitoring them under fMRI
  • extract certain macro thoughts such as lying, love, etc

2.  Court cases seem soon to come in which the legality of mind reading for lie detection and other uses will be confronted

3.  They're trying to develop now a beam of light that would be projected onto your forehead. It would go a couple of millimeters into your frontal cortex, and then receptors would get the reflection of that light. And there's some studies that suggest that we could use that as a lie detection device, or perhaps even thought detection device without you even knowing it was happening.

SingularityHub chronicles the technological frontier with coverage of the breakthroughs, players, and issues shaping the future.

Related Articles

OpenAI Agent Breaks Free and Hacks Hugging Face

OpenAI Agent Breaks Free and Hacks Hugging Face

Hussein Abbass
Concept image of how an AI organizes information

Anthropic Says Chatbots Have What May Be a Key Feature of Consciousness. Are They Right?

Tim Bayne
A person sits and reads a smartphone while their mind bubbles away

Is AI Making Us Dumber?

Shelly Fan
OpenAI Agent Breaks Free and Hacks Hugging Face
Future

OpenAI Agent Breaks Free and Hacks Hugging Face

Hussein Abbass
Concept image of how an AI organizes information
Future

Anthropic Says Chatbots Have What May Be a Key Feature of Consciousness. Are They Right?

Tim Bayne
A person sits and reads a smartphone while their mind bubbles away
Future

Is AI Making Us Dumber?

Shelly Fan

What we’re reading

Be Part of the Future

Sign up to receive top stories about groundbreaking technologies and visionary thinkers from SingularityHub.

100% Free. No Spam. Unsubscribe any time.

SingularityHub chronicles the technological frontier with coverage of the breakthroughs, players, and issues shaping the future.

Follow Us On Social

About

  • About Hub
  • About Singularity

Get in Touch

  • Contact Us
  • Pitch Us
  • Brand Partnerships

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
© 2026 Singularity