Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence model, which can predict a person’s choices before they have even made up their mind.
Using spiking neural networks, the researchers from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand developed a system called, “NeuCube.”
NeuCube is a machine learning system modeled on how the human brain learns and recognizes patterns.
It was undertaken by a team from AUT’s Knowledge Engineering and Discovery Research Institute (KEDRI), which includes AUT PhD students and sisters Zohreh and Maryam Doborjeh, their supervisor Professor Nikola Kasabov and Professor Alex Sumich from Nottingham Trent University.
In experiments, the sisters got 20 participants to watch a video of different beverage logos and recorded their brain data using an EEG headset.
That data was processed by the NeuCube algorithm, which learned and classified patterns from the participants’ brains.
Typically NeuCube was 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.
This ground breaking work 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.
Kasabov, the designer of NeuCube, says the finding will lead on to more research.
“Researchers and social scientists will use this to understand better how much bias or prejudice we have due to our sub-conscience; what are our true preferences in life, how can we communicate better, and how can we learn better?”