[2bitencryption]

Are any of the example images novel, i.e. new to the model? Or is the model only reconstructing images it has already seen before?

Either way, if I'm understanding right, it's very impressive. If the only input to the model (after training) is a fMRI reading, and from that it can reconstruct an image, at the very least that shows it can strongly correlate brain patterns back to the original image.

It'd be even cooler (and scarier?) if it works for novel images. I wonder what the output would look like for an image the model had never seen before? Would a person looking at a clock produce a roughly clock-like image, or would it be noise?

All the usual skepticism to these models applies, of course. They are very good at hallucinating, and we are very good at applying our own meaning to their hallucinations.

[andai]

There was a video many years ago (early 2010s?) demoing a similar technology, which would overlay and blend many images on top of each other to make a fuzzy image approximating what was actually being viewed.

Edit: found it! https://youtu.be/nsjDnYxJ0bo

[ricudis]

The youtube video quotes a paper by the same author, so it's probably the same group's work. I wonder why didn't they used an approach similar to the one in the video using SD - it looks more viable.

[djmips]

Because it's from 11 years ago when SD wasn't around.