The model from Israel’s Weizmann Institute can also predict brain activity from images a person sees.
A new AI tool can reconstruct the image a person is viewing by analyzing their brain scans. Michal Irani and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, built the model. The model also works in reverse, predicting brain activity from images a person sees.
Neuroscientists have spent years trying to reconstruct what people see. Early attempts produced blurry images. Irani’s team used publicly available fMRI data and newer higher-resolution scanners. Judy Illes, a neuroethicist at the University of British Columbia, praised the work, while Tommy Sprague, a neuroscientist at UC Santa Barbara, warned about surreptitious thought extraction.
For builders, the tool points to new human-computer interfaces that translate neural signals into images. Operators in healthcare can build communication aids for locked-in people. Enterprise teams should track consent and privacy rules as brain-scan models improve.
Irani hopes to use the tool to study how the brain works and to recreate dream content. Other researchers have already built similar models, but Irani argues those tools produce less accurate images. Watch for debates about consent, privacy, and the potential for surreptitious brain decoding.
What matters
- Michal Irani and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science developed the tool.
- Builders can use brain scan reconstruction to create new interfaces for locked-in people.
- Watch for ethics debates as researchers warn about non-consensual thought extraction.
Why it matters
Watch for ethics debates as researchers warn about non-consensual thought extraction.
This GenAI News article was prepared in original wording using reporting and materials published by MIT Technology Review AI. Source reference: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/01/1145588/ai-mind-reading-reconstructs-what-youre-looking-at/.
Drafted by the GenAI News review pipeline.