--- title: "Startup Says It’s Invented a Beanie That Reads Your Mind" description: "A Palo Alto-based startup called Sabi says it's creating a beanie that can translate your thoughts into text." date: "2026-05-04" modified: "2026-05-04" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/health-medicine/startup-mind-reading-beanie" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Brain" - "Computing" - "Devices" - "Health & Medicine" - "Neuroscience and Brain" - "Robots and Machines" --- # Startup Says It’s Invented a Beanie That Reads Your Mind ![A person wearing a beige knit beanie and a patterned sweater is sitting at a wooden desk, turning the pages of a yellow book. The background features a dark abstract wall art and a black desk lamp with a curved gold base. There is also a vase with dried flowers on the desk. The lighting is warm and casts a golden glow on the scene.]() *Sabi* If you thought AI-integrated smart glasses were bad, wait until you get a load of Sabi, a Palo Alto-based startup working on a beanie it says will probe your actual brain signals. That's not hyperbole. The company's eponymous Sabi Cap, [per *New Atlas*](), comes lined with 100,000 electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, which will translate electrical signals from your brain into usable data for Sabi's "Brain Foundation" AI model — all meant to transcribe your thoughts into digital text at what the company says will be a rate of 30 words per minute. The AI model powering it is said to be trained on 100,000 hours of data from some 100 volunteers, [*Wired* previously reported](). But given that thought and speech patterns vary wildly between person to person, the challenge of building a universally workable EEG-to-speech device is enormous, and the company has yet to share any evidence that its product performs as advertised. "These devices are going to have to be ready to go out of the box," third-party neurotech consultant JoJo Platt told *Wired*. "They're going to have to conform to me rather than me conforming to it." The commercial appeal is clear. It's hard to imagine a [surgically implanted brain chip]() like Neuralink ever gaining genuine mass traction, making a lightweight alternative compelling. And certain evidence does suggest that you could get usable data from outside the skull; as one [non-peer-reviewed paper]() found a few years ago, AI models fine-tuned with EEG data represent a "significant advancement towards portable, low-cost 'thoughts-to-text' technology with potential applications in both neuroscience and natural language processing." Yet as a peer-reviewed paper [published in *Scientific Reports*]() last year found, the efficacy of EEG-to-text models remains "unclear due to limitations in evaluation methodologies." The early promise of EEG, the later study argues, is likely the result of flashy pattern memorization rather than a novel tech that can decode human brain waves. In other words, it's possible Sabi's founders have massively underestimated how advanced their brain foundation model really is. Until we get a glimpse at the product, set to release later in 2026, it's anyone's guess whether this is a true mind-reading device, or just a very expensive hat. **More on tech companies:** *[There’s Something Bizarre About the Offices of AI Startups]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()