The Download: stereotypes in AI models, and the new age of coding

How close are we to genuine “mind reading?”

Technically speaking, neuroscientists have been able to read your mind for decades. It’s not easy, mind you. First, you must lie motionless within a fMRI scanner, perhaps for hours, while you watch films or listen to audiobooks.

If you do elect to endure claustrophobic hours in the scanner, the software will learn to generate a bespoke reconstruction of what you were seeing or listening to, just by analyzing how blood moves through your brain.

More recently, researchers have deployed generative AI tools, like Stable Diffusion and GPT, to create far more realistic, if not entirely accurate, reconstructions of films and podcasts based on neural activity. So how close are we to genuine “mind reading?” Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Finally, some good news—Valerie the miniature dachshund has been rescued after spending 529 days in the Australian wilderness.
+ If you’re a parent or teacher who’s having to put up with constant shouts of “six seven,” rest assured you’re not alone.
+ How is The Legend of Zelda” Majora’s Mask a quarter of a century old!?
+ Meanwhile in the UK, we’re turning our front lawns into meadows.