Even the most sophisticated purpose made medical research tools can't do this in a way that you are imagining. If somehow Apple accomplished mind reading devices in their spare time I'd be so amazed that I'd actually not even care how invasive it is. At least for awhile.

Thankfully we're nowhere near crossing it.

The davos types don't think "brain transparency" is so farfetched.

"You may be surprised to learn this is a future that has already arrived."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfqD5aW0X5U

I don't think it's valuable to learn what different groups believe and rely on that for your own understanding.

To the original poster: what of your own direct experience and knowledge has convinced you that this is an imminent threat?

patents don't mean something is remotely close to existing. A lot of patents are purely speculative, to either fish for future licensing revenues or to protect the ability to enter a market in the future

Trolling on HN is an abomination.

No one is going to eavesdrop on your thoughts without drilling a hole through your skull.

Even then, they'd have to hold their ear right up to the hole to have a chance of hearing the thoughts.

How can you be so sure?

Maybe not today, but with better sensors and neural networks I'd say anything is possible.

That's not what's bothering me most in the long run though. Because there's no way in hell they'll be able to resist the temptation to manipulate our brains directly if they ever develop the capability.

Technology is neither good nor bad, but it enables better and worse with every iteration.

>How can you be so sure?

I studied biomedical engineering, it's really difficult to get anything useful out of a human brain non-invasively even if you are Apple. Neural networks are not magic, they can't do much with such low SNR.

Yes, I understand; but no one would have expected GPT4 10 years ago, technological evolution is exponential, not linear.

LLMs are more an exanoke of punctuated that smooth, even exponential, when looked at vs. 10 years ago, but there’s a difference between no one would expect b/c we don’t know how, and there being a clear articulable reason why not.

When my AirPods actually stay in my ears, I'll worry.

It's an Apple related news.

If Google, for example, had announced this, the median response would be closer to your take.

Even EEG headbands don't actually do this; they mostly measure how tight you're holding your face muscles.