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This is nifty. Also I'm oddly comforted by the fact that this system doesn't "read thoughts".

If you're like most people, you "talk to yourself" internally all the time, so this doesn't seem that far from reading your thoughts.



Actually, I think it's been found out recently that thinking that everyone has an "inner voice" is a presumption by those who do. Apparently it's only 25%~ of the population or so that actually have an inner monologue.

It got revitalised again recently resulting in much commotion from people on either side of the fence: shock that someone might never hear their own voice or talk to themselves inside their head, and shock that someone might have this voice talking to themselves, for somebody who has only known silence.

I think there are a couple studies that back it up, but a lot is anecdotal as people describe their side of the fence.

I have an inner voice myself, but I have thoughts and sensations that my inner voice does not voice, and some where it does.

The human brain is so freaking cool.


But as far as I know no motor signals are sent to my mouth when I talk to myself (i.e. internal monologue), so this wouldn't read my thoughts. I'm not sure what you're saying.



In fact, this has been going on for quite a while but I expect that LLMs will blow the field wide open:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_speech_interface

This year though: https://news.mit.edu/2018/computer-system-transcribes-words-...

And https://fortune.com/2023/03/09/ai-generate-images-human-thou...


They might not be acted upon, but they could still be sent, up to a "gatekeeper" brain segment.


Is it really that common? I certainly don't.


Do You Have an Inner Voice? Not Everyone Does https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human...


That would be interesting. I would think if you are conscious you have to have an inner voice.


Nope. Thoughts, yes, but you don't by any means need to think in words or audio all the time.


The notion of 'thinking in words' reminds me of how LLMs work, but it certainly isn't me.



If we're talking about actual vocalizations then I do occasionally but it's just stuff like "whoops!" or "god damn it!" even if there's no one around.




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