An artificial intelligence model was able to predict the choices of 20 humans by analysing their EEG brainwaves – according to Auckland University of Technology’s Knowledge Engineering and Discovery Research Institute. “20 participants were told to watch a video of different beverage logos. They recorded their brain data using an EEG headset. The recorded data then submitted to the algorithm. It quickly learned and start to classified patterns from the participant’s brains”.

Also, according to the news “the algorithm was able able to predict their beverage choice 0.2 seconds before they consciously perceived the beverage. It also showed a clear difference between logos which were familiar to participants and those which weren’t”.

So, we finally see something straight out of the sci-fi movies of the ’80-’90’s: people’s brains scanned by an AI agent 🙂 But apart from the fiction there are some discrepencies in the report. Apparently the AI was able to ID every and all preferences of the monitored humans, so it did like a human operator of a lie detector: noticing anomalies of the graphs.

If this is the case, then it is not much of a breaktrough, yet… according to the scentists involved in the experiment it is a “ground breaking work (that) can have a number of uses, including neuromarketing, cognitive studies and crime solving. One potential application would be the ability to determine an offender in a police line-up if a victim has blocked out the traumatic experience”.

So, in other words the number of unsubstantiated methods aimed at mining the human brain for “answers” increased by one.

In the words of one of the scientists, Maryam Doborjeh: “The brain is an amazing thing – it learns and remembers things and can recognise them before the person can. To get a computer to be able to do that will change the way we all live“.

Well, …indeed.

Sources:

World’s First AI That Can Predict A Person’s Choices Before They Make It.

https://news.aut.ac.nz/news/world-first-in-decision-making-ai

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12118327