# AI Predicts Thoughts From Brain Scans

> New AI tool decodes brain scans to reveal what you're thinking about.
- Title: AI Predicts Thoughts From Brain Scans · Futurism | Shortify
- Summary: New AI tool decodes brain scans to reveal what you're thinking about. Researchers created AI that predicts what someone is imagining from brain scans…
- Keywords: brain scan, neuroscience, privacy, fmr machines, diffusion model, science, technology, Predicts, Thoughts, Brain, Scans, Futurism
- Source: Futurism — https://futurism.com/health-medicine/new-ai-thinking-about-brain-scan
- Author: Frank Landymore
- Published: 2026-10-07T15:13:10+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: ai, brain scan, neuroscience, privacy, fmr machines, diffusion model, science, technology
## New AI Decodes Brain Scans
Researchers developed an AI tool that predicts what you're looking at from brain scans and generates accurate images of your thoughts.

> Better learn about "brain privacy," because it may soon go the way of the dodo.
## Neuroscientist Warns of Privacy Risks
Tommy Sprague, a neuroscientist at uc santa barbara, said the tool could enable surreptitious extraction of thoughts, making sci-fi scenarios real.

> the results seem very impressive
## Higher Fidelity Image Reconstruction
Michal irani's team created a more detailed image reconstruction than previous brain scan methods using newer high-resolution scans.

> their work is able to create a higher fidelity representation of what's being pictured
## AI Model Training Process
The researchers trained an ai model on brain scans from eight subjects viewing thousands of images to predict image structure and content.

> the researchers trained an ai model on a public data set of brain scans that were taken from eight subjects while they were shown thousands of images
## Synthetic Brain Scans for Refinement
The team used an encoder model to generate synthetic brain scans from images, improving the ai's accuracy without needing real scans.

> to work around this, the researchers trained an ai model that worked in reverse
## Potential for Brain Privacy Loss
Marcello ienca warned that wearable brain devices could allow companies to access thoughts without consent, threatening brain privacy.

> i have no doubt that this is, you know, well-intentioned research, but i think it's also pretty obvious that it could be co-opted for... ethically and societally problematic commercial uses
## Key takeaway

Researchers created AI that predicts what someone is imagining from brain scans, raising concerns about brain privacy.