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卫报双语精读TE-2023-05-27期考研英语|思想之语（PDF版+Word版）

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5.27每日一篇 | 英语外刊社

Clause for thought: first non-invasive way to read minds as AI turns brain activity into text
思想之语：第一个像人工智能那样将大脑活动转化为文本的非入侵式读心术【公众号英语外刊社】
【1】An AI-based decoder that can translate brain activity into a stream of text has been developed, in a breakthrough that allows thoughts to be read non-invasively for the first time. The decoder could reconstruct speech with uncanny accuracy while people listened to a story – or even silentlyimagined one – using only fMRI scan data. Previous language decoding systems have required surgical implants, and the latest advance raises the prospect of new ways to restore speech in patients struggling to communicate as a result of stroke or motor neurone disease. Dr Alexander Huth, a neuroscientist who led the work at the University of Texas at Austin, said: “We were kind of shocked that it works as well as it does. I’ve been working on this for 15 years … so it was shocking and exciting when it finally did work.”

一种基于人工智能、可以将大脑活动转化为文本流的解码器已经被开发出来，这一突破，首次让人们可以通过非入侵方式读懂思想。当人们在听一个故事，甚至是在默默地想象一个故事时，解码器可以只用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描数据，以惊人的准确性重构话语。以前的语言解码系统需要手术植入物，而这一最新进展为因中风或运动神经元疾病沟通困难的患者恢复语言能力带来了新疗法的希望。领导德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校这项研究的神经科学家亚历山大·胡思（Alexander Huth）博士说:“我们对解码器运作得如此之好感到有些震惊。我研究这个项目已经15年了，所以最后成功时，我感到既震惊又兴奋。”

【2】Mind-reading has traditionally been the preserve of sci-fi, in characters such as the X-Men’s Jean Grey, but the latest AI technology has finally taken the concept into the real world. This decoder’s achievement overcomes a fundamental limitation of fMRI: while the technique can map brain activity to a specific location with incredibly high resolution, there is an inherent time lag, which makes tracking activity in real time impossible. The lag exists because fMRI scans measure the blood-flow response to brain activity, which peaks and returns to baseline over about 10 seconds, meaning even the most powerful scanner cannot improve on this. “It’s this noisy, sluggish proxy for neural activity,” said Huth. This hard limit has hamperedthe ability to interpret brain activity in response to natural speech because it gives a “mishmash of information” spread over a few seconds.

读心术一直以来都是科幻小说的专利，比如《X战警》（X-Men）中的琴·格雷（Jean Grey），但最新的人工智能技术终于将这一理念带入了现实世界。这种解码器实现了克服fMRI的一个基本限制：虽然该技术可以以令人难以置信的高分辨率将大脑活动映射到特定位置，但存在固有的时滞，这让实时跟踪大脑活动变得不可能。这种滞后的存在是因为fMRI扫描测量的是对大脑活动的血流量反应，大脑活动约在10秒内达到峰值、回到基线，这意味着即使是最强大的扫描仪也无法改善这一点。胡思说：“这是神经活动的嘈杂、迟缓的体现。”这个硬性限制阻碍了解读大脑活动对自然语言作出反应的能力，因为它在几秒钟内给了“一堆信息”。

【3】However, the advent of large language models – the kind of AI underpinning OpenAI’s ChatGPT – provided a new way in. These models are able to represent, in numbers, the semantic meaning of speech, allowing the scientists to look at which patterns of neuronal activity corresponded to strings of words with a particular meaning rather than attempting to read out activity word by word. The learning process was intensive: three volunteers were required to lie in a scanner for 16 hours each, listening to podcasts. The decoder was trained to match brain activity to meaning using the large language model GPT-1, a precursor to ChatGPT. Later, the same participants were scanned listening to a new story or imagining telling a story and the decoder was used to generate text from brain activity alone.

然而，大型语言模型的问世——支撑OpenAI（开放人工智能，美国一个人工智能研究实验室）旗下ChatGPT（人工智能聊天机器人程序）的人工智能——给出了一种新的方法。这些模型能够用数字来表示语言的语义，让科学家们看到神经元活动的模式与具有特定含义的单词串相对应，而不是试图逐字逐句读出大脑活动。学习过程非常细致：要求三名志愿者各自在扫描仪里躺16个小时，听播客。训练解码器使用大型语言模型GPT-1 （ChatGPT的前身）将大脑活动与意义匹配起来。之后，对相同的参与者进行扫描，让他们听个新故事或想象讲个故事，然后用解码器单独从大脑活动中生成文本。
【4】About half the time, the text closely – and sometimes precisely – matched the intended meanings of the original words. “Our system works at the level of ideas, semantics, meaning,” said Huth. “This is the reason why what we get out is not the exact words, it’s the gist.” For instance, when a participant was played the words: “I don’t have my driver’s licence yet,” the decoder translated as: “She has not even started to learn to drive yet.”

大约有一半的时间，文本与原词的意思非常接近，有时甚至完全吻合。“我们的系统在思想、语义和意义的层面上工作，”胡思说。“这就是为什么我们得到的不是确切的文字，而是要点。”例如，当参与者听到这样的话:“我还没有拿到驾照”，解码器会翻译为：“她还没有开始学开车。”

【5】In another case, the words: “I didn’t know whether to scream, cry or run away. Instead, I said: ‘Leave me alone!’” was decoded as: “Started to scream and cry, and then she just said: ‘I told you to leave me alone.’” The participants were also asked to watch four short, silent videos while in the scanner, and the decoder was able to use their brain activity to accurately describe some of the content, the paper in Nature Neuroscience reported.

在另一个例子中，这句话是:“我不知道该尖叫、哭泣还是逃跑。相反，我说:‘让我一个人待会儿’”被解读为:“开始尖叫和哭泣，然后她只是说:‘我告诉过你，让我一个人待会儿。”这篇发表在《自然神经科学》（Nature Neuroscience）上的论文写道，还要求参与者在扫描仪中观看四段简短的无声视频，解码器能够利用他们的大脑活动准确描述其中的一些内容。
【6】“For a non -invasive method, this is a real leap forward compared to what’s been done before, which is typically single words or short sentences,” Huth said. Jerry Tang, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author, said: “We take very seriously the concerns that it could be used for bad purposes, and have worked to avoid that. “We want to make sure people only use these types of technologies when they want to and that it helps them.”

胡思说:“对于一种非入侵性的方法来说，这是一种真正的飞跃，相比之下，以前的方法通常是单个单词或简短的句子。”德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校（University of Texas at Austin）的博士生、研究报告的合著者杰里·唐（Jerry Tang）说:“我们非常重视人们对这项技术可能被用于不良目的的担忧，并一直在努力避免这种情况。我们希望确保人们只在有需要的时候使用这些技术，而且这些技术对他们有所帮助。”
【7】Prof Shinji Nishimoto of Osaka University, who has pioneered the reconstruction of visual images from brain activity, described the paper as a “significant advance”. He said: “This is a non-trivial finding and can be a basis for the development of brain-computer interfaces.” The team now hope to assess whether the technique could be applied to other, more portable brain-imaging systems, such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

大阪大学的西本真司（Shinji Nishimoto）教授是大脑活动视觉图像重构的先驱，他将这篇论文描述为“重大进步”。他说:“这是一项重要的发现，可以为脑机接口的发展奠定基础。”该团队现在希望评估这项技术是否可以应用于其他更便携的脑成像系统，比如功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）。

1短语：

1.原文：An AI-based decoder that can translate brain activity into a stream of text has been developed, in a breakthrough that allows thoughts to be read non-invasively for the first time.

词典：a stream of一连串、一系列

例句：The discovery triggered a stream of readers' letters.

这个发现引来一连串的读者来信。

2. Previous language decoding systems have required surgical implants, and the latest advance raises the prospect of new ways to restore speech in patients struggling to communicate as a result of stroke or motor neurone disease.

词典：surgical implant外科植入物

例句：Objective: The biocompatibility different types of surgical implant were evaluated.

目的：评价不同类型外科植入物的生物相容性。

词典：motor neurone disease运动神经元病

例句：Professor Hawkins suffers from motor neurone disease.

霍金教授身患运动神经元疾病。

3.原文： This decoder’s achievement overcomes a fundamental limitation of fMRI: while the technique can map brain activity to a specific location with incredibly high resolution, there is an inherent time lag, which makes tracking activity in real time impossible.

词典：time lag时间间隔；时间滞差；时滞

例句：There is a time lag between theoretical research and practical applications.

理论研究和实际应用之间存在时滞。

4.原文： The participants were also asked to watch four short, silent videos while in the scanner, and the decoder was able to use their brain activity to accurately describe some of the content, the paper in Nature Neuroscience reported.

词典：Nature Neuroscience自然神经科学（杂志名）

例句：In a 2016 study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Ariely and colleagues showed how dishonesty alters people's brains, making it easier to tell lies in the future.

在2016年发表在《自然神经科学》杂志上的一项研究中，艾瑞里和同事们展示了欺诈是如何改变人的大脑，并让人在未来更容易说谎的。

5.原文：He said: “This is a non-trivial finding and can be a basis for the development of brain-computer interfaces.”

词典：non-trivial非平凡的；面对较重大

例句：Virtually all non-trivial problems require you to filter good data from bad.

几乎所有重要问题都需要从无用数据中过滤出有用数据。

2长难句

1. 原文：This decoder’s achievement overcomes a fundamental limitation of fMRI: while the technique can map brain activity to a specific location with incredibly high resolution, there is an inherent time lag, which makes tracking activity in real time impossible.

分析：本句很长，包含让步状语从句、非限定性定语从句。开头“This decoder’s achievement”是主语，“overcomes”是谓语；“a fundamental limitation of fMRI”是宾语；冒号后面是“while”引导的让步状语从句，主句中又包含“which”引导的非限定性定语从句，先行词为“an inherent time lag”，定语从句对先行词进行解释说明。

译文：这种解码器实现了克服fMRI的一个基本限制：虽然该技术可以以令人难以置信的高分辨率将大脑活动映射到特定位置，但存在固有的时滞，这让实时跟踪大脑活动变得不可能。

2.原文：The lag exists because fMRI scans measure the blood-flow response to brain activity, which peaks and returns to baseline over about 10 seconds, meaning even the most powerful scanner cannot improve on this.

分析：本句较长，包含原因状语从句、非限定性定语从句，“The lag”是主语，“exists”是谓语，“because”引导原因状语从句，其中包含非限定性定语从句，“brain activity”是先行词，“which”引导限制性定语从句，对先行词进行限定、解释、说明；“meaning”现在分词做伴随状语。

译文：这种滞后的存在是因为fMRI扫描测量的是对大脑活动的血流量反应，大脑活动约在10秒内达到峰值、回到基线，这意味着即使是最强大的扫描仪也无法改善这一点。

3背景知识：

近日，美国得克萨斯州奥斯汀分校的团队基于人工智能技术开发出一种解码器，可将大脑活动转化为连续的文本流，AI首次可以通过非侵入式的方法学会“读心术”。根据这项发表在《自然神经科学》（Nature Neuroscience）杂志上的实验结果，GPT人工智能大模型感知语音的准确率可高达82%，令人惊叹。不过研究人员强调，“AI读心”也要尊重心理隐私，AI的训练和应用解码器都需要着手解决有关该技术可能被滥用的问题，以确保人们只在他们想要的时候使用这类技术，并对他们有所帮助，而不是起到反向作用。随着人工智能技术突飞猛进的发展，技术的风险以及如何对此加以监管，成为越来越受关注的话题。

段落大意：

【1】新式解码器首次让人们可以通过非入侵方式读懂思想。

【2】最新的人工智能技术终于将读心术带入了现实世界，但有些硬性限制。

【3】解码器解读大脑活动的过程。

【4】大约有一半时间，文本与原词的意思非常接近，有时甚至完全吻合。

【5】解码器能够利用大脑活动准确描述其中的一些内容。

【6】科学家们认为非入侵性读心术是一种真正的飞跃，但也在努力减轻人们对这种新技术的担忧。

【7】大阪大学大脑活动视觉图像重构的先驱西本真司教授认为这项重要的发现，可以为脑机接口的发展奠定基础。