Stanford pushes open the door of thinking, and the last boundary of human privacy is in urgent danger.

Science fiction is quietly becoming a reality.

Recently, scientists at Stanford University have for the first time decoded the inner monologues in human minds into text with high precision using brain-computer interface technology. This research, published in the top journal Cell, brings a glimmer of hope for communication to patients with aphasia. At the same time, it also brings the controversial mind-reading technology from science fiction and literary works into reality.

From the scientific realm to the crossroads of ethics, a profound transformation around the boundaries of thought has already begun.

While embracing the infinite possibilities brought by technology, do we have enough wisdom to set up a rule-based firewall in advance for this "thought-reading" technology?

Science fiction is quietly becoming a reality.

This month, a paper in the top academic journal Cell has caused a major stir in the global scientific and ethical communities.

A groundbreaking study led by a neuroscience team at Stanford University in the United States announced that they have achieved a historic breakthrough in the field of brain-computer interface (BCI) — for the first time, they have successfully identified and decoded the brain activities related to inner speech.

In this study, scientists implanted tiny silicon-based electrode arrays into the cerebral cortices of two volunteers who were completely paralyzed and unable to speak due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and accurately captured the complex neural signals generated during their thinking processes.

In the laboratory, the volunteers' thoughts were connected to a high-performance computer through a thin cable. On the screen, the words they had just "spoken" in their minds were being translated into text in real-time at a speed of over 60 words per minute.

For someone who has been unable to speak for nearly a decade, this moment is nothing short of a miracle.

With the help of advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, the thoughts in her mind are being "heard" by the world with an unprecedented accuracy of 74%.

The publication of this study quickly made it to the front pages of the science and technology sections of major global media such as Xinhua News Agency. The public's reaction was complex and enthusiastic. On one hand, people cheered for the scientific progress that would help aphasics rebuild their communication abilities. On the other hand, there was deep concern about the fact that "mind-reading" has become a reality.

How exactly was this technology achieved? How is it different from the brain-computer interfaces we knew in the past?

It is introduced that the brain-computer interface technology is not something that can be achieved overnight. It is a science that studies how to establish a direct information channel between the brain and external devices.

In the past two decades, it has made many significant advancements: Paralyzed patients can control robotic arms to pour water for themselves through their thoughts, and blind mice have regained partial vision.

However, these applications still remain at a relatively basic level. The breakthrough at Stanford has taken this exploration into a new and more controversial deep - water zone.

Revolutionary leap

For a long time, the vast majority of applications of brain-computer interfaces have focused on decoding the brain's motor intentions.

In March 2025, a team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne also made the latest progress in this field. They used BCI to help paralyzed patients achieve more precise and smoother walking control, which represents a qualitative leap in the motor intention decoding technology.

The person in charge of the study said, "We are moving from the stage of 'can we do it' to the stage of 'how to do it better'. The goal of decoding motor intentions is no longer just on or off, but to achieve smooth and natural control like that of a healthy person."

However, whether it is controlling a robotic arm to pour water or driving the legs to walk again, the essence of these applications is to read the command signals sent by the motor cortex of the brain.

The difficulty of decoding inner monologues is completely different. It is a leap in dimension.

Silent language thinking is far more complex, abstract, and scattered than a single action command. It is no longer about "what to do", but about "what to think".

The revolutionary aspect of decoding inner monologues is that it can even bypass the motor cortex directly related to speaking actions and extract signals from more abstract thinking areas.

For example, a previous study at the California Institute of Technology tried to decode language from the posterior parietal cortex, which is considered to integrate multiple sensory information and form perception. Extracting signals from here is more difficult, but it is also closer to decoding pure thoughts.

The great potential of this technology lies in its ability to help patients who cannot even generate the muscle signals for attempting to speak. For example, patients with locked-in syndrome are fully conscious but completely paralyzed in all their muscles, even unable to control their eyeballs. This new technology is their only hope to communicate with the world.

Their thoughts are imprisoned in their bodies and cannot be perceived by the outside world. Decoding inner monologues is the key to opening this silent prison.

The Pandora's box has been opened

While the Stanford study brings new hope, it has also opened Pandora's box.

When thoughts are no longer an absolute privacy, we have to face an ethical storm.

In July this year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a new report on neurotechnology and human rights, in which one view is particularly noteworthy.

The report clearly states that "mental privacy should be regarded as a fundamental human right. Any act of obtaining a person's neural data without their explicit consent should be considered illegal."

In addition, the report also for the first time systematically suggests that countries should incorporate neuro - rights into their legal systems, specifically including the right to mental privacy, the right to personal identity, the right to free will, and the right to fair access to cognitive enhancement technologies.

In fact, this report is not unfounded alarmism, but an urgent response to the ongoing reality.

A few years ago, a startup company developed a non - invasive headband for students to analyze their concentration and learning efficiency, which was highly controversial and was called a "monitoring headband" in media reports.

The law is struggling to keep up with the pace of technological progress.

In June this year, California in the United States passed the most comprehensive Neural Data Privacy Act to date.

This act not only strictly restricts companies from collecting consumers' neural data, but also for the first time makes strict regulations on neuromarketing, which is the practice of optimizing advertisements and products by analyzing brainwave data.

It can be seen that compared with the numerous obstacles faced by technological innovation, ethics and morality also have a long way to go.

We may have reached a crossroads that will determine the fate of humanity: On the evolutionary path towards human - machine integration, will we move towards a more free future or a new world deeply controlled by technology?

This article is from the WeChat public account "NEXT Trends", author: Fang Yuan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.