Researchers at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, are working on a new way to understand what’s happening in people’s minds. On August 31, the company announced that research scientists in its AI lab have developed AI that can “hear” what someone’s hearing, by studying their brainwaves.

While the research is still in very early stages, it’s intended to be a building block for tech that could help people with traumatic brain injuries who can’t communicate by talking or typing. Most importantly, researchers are trying to record this brain activity without probing the brain with electrodes, which requires surgery.

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The Meta AI study looked at 169 healthy adult participants who heard stories and sentences read aloud, as scientists recorded their brain activity with various devices (think: electrodes stuck on participants’ heads).

Read more: TIME