Brain Implant Turns Thoughts Into Speech In Near Real-time

A brain implant using artificial intelligence was able to turn a paralysed womans thoughts into speech almost simultaneously, US researchers said Monday.

Though still at the experimental stage, the latest achievement using an implant linking brains and computers raised hopes that these devices could allow people who have lost the ability to communicate to regain their voice.

The California-based team of researchers had previously used a brain-computer interface BCI to decode the thoughts of Ann, a 47-year-old with quadriplegia, and translate them into speech.

However there was an eight-second delay between her thoughts and the speech being read aloud by a computer.

This meant a flowing conversation was still out of reach for Ann, a former high school math teacher who has not been able to speak since suffering a stroke 18 years ago.