Get paid to share your thoughts and ideas?:Former OpenAI researcher’s company uses ‘AI telepathy’ to train its models; how it differs from Musk’s Neuralink

What if you could control an AI system without typing, speaking, or touching a screen, simply by thinking? That is the idea behind ‘Conduit,’ an AI startup that is working on technology designed to turn brain activity into text. The company calls its goal ‘telepathy at scale’ and is recruiting people to help train its AI models using non-invasive brain data. The startup is even offering participants money for taking part in its research sessions, with payments reportedly reaching $55 (around ₹5,200) per session. What exactly is Conduit building? Conduit is developing AI models that can translate non-invasive neural signals into text. The company describes its work as: We’re building telepathy: thought-to-text models, trained on non-invasive neural data. But despite the word “telepathy”, the technology is not reading every private thought inside a person’s mind like science fiction. Instead, it is attempting to use patterns in brain activity to understand what a person is saying, reading, typing, or otherwise intentionally communicating. In simple terms, the system is trying to learn what brain activity looks like when someone is communicating specific information. Is this really telepathy? Telepathy usually means communicating thoughts directly from one mind to another without using speech, writing, or another physical method. Conduit’s technology is different. The system is not expected to simply put on a helmet and reveal everything a person is thinking. Instead, it uses sensors to capture brain activity and AI models to interpret those signals. So, it is better described as brain-signal decoding or thought-to-text technology rather than mind-reading in the science-fiction sense. Who is behind the project? Conduit recently attracted attention after former OpenAI researcher Naomi Bashkansky joined the company. Bashkansky previously worked at OpenAI and has now moved to Conduit to work on its brain-computer and AI research. Her move highlights the growing interest among AI researchers in combining artificial intelligence with neuroscience and brain-computer interfaces. How will Conduit’s system work? To train its AI models, Conduit is recruiting people to participate in research sessions. Participants reportedly spend around two hours at the company’s facility while wearing a helmet equipped with electrodes. The device weighs about four pounds and records neural activity without requiring surgery. During these sessions, participants may be asked to interact with an AI model, listen and speak, read or type. The company explained in a blog post: Sessions vary. Some are listening and speaking with an LLM, and some are reading and typing. The goal is to collect as much useful neural data as possible while participants communicate naturally. Participants must also be able to type without looking at their fingers, and they can reportedly take part in up to 32 sessions. Also read: Govt proposes new rule to remove unlawful AI content:Cuts time to remove illegal material from 36 hours to 3 hours

What kind of thoughts is the AI trying to capture? Conduit’s system is not simply designed to record every random thought that crosses someone’s mind. The research focuses on brain activity connected to intentional communication and tasks, such as speaking, listening, reading, and typing. The AI then looks for patterns between the neural signals and the information being communicated. This data could eventually help researchers build systems that allow people to communicate with computers using brain activity rather than traditional input methods. How to sign up for Conduit’s paid research sessions? Interested participants can apply for Conduit’s research sessions through the company’s official booking page. According to the current booking page, participants can receive $50 for completing a two-hour session or $100 for four hours, with payment made by check. The page currently allows a maximum of 10 two-hour sessions per person. How is this different from Elon Musk’s Neuralink? Both projects are exploring the connection between the human brain and computers, but their approaches are very different. Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, uses an implanted brain-computer interface. Its system involves surgically placing an implant inside the brain to record neural signals. Conduit, on the other hand, is focusing on non-invasive technology. Participants wear a sensor-equipped helmet rather than undergoing brain surgery. Neuralink has already demonstrated brain-controlled computing in human participants, including allowing users to interact with computers using neural signals. Conduit’s approach could be less invasive because it does not require an implant, but capturing and interpreting brain signals from outside the body presents its own technical challenges. Why does this technology matter? If researchers can reliably translate brain activity into words, the technology could eventually have applications beyond controlling AI. Brain-computer interfaces could potentially help people who have lost the ability to speak or use traditional communication tools. Researchers are already exploring similar technology to help people with neurological conditions communicate. Other future applications could include controlling computers, communicating without physical input, and creating new ways for humans to interact with AI. Also read: Amazon Great Freedom Sale is now live:Get top smartphone deals under ₹30,000, including Galaxy S25 Ultra, OnePlus Nord CE6 and more

But there are major challenges The biggest challenge is accuracy. Brain signals are extremely complex, and the same thought or intention may not produce the same neural pattern every time. Researchers therefore need large amounts of high-quality data to train their AI systems. There are also major questions around privacy and consent. If technology becomes capable of decoding increasingly detailed information from brain activity, who owns that data? How should it be protected? And what happens if companies can infer information that a person never intended to share? For now, Conduit’s technology remains a research project rather than a device that can simply read anyone’s mind.