Four million dollars for your thoughts? With the help of that much in U.S. Army funds, a team of university scientists are trying to develop a gadget that could read people’s minds, the Associated Press reports.

Led by researchers at the University of California at Irvine, the team is using electroencephalography, or EEG, to analyze the brain activity produced when volunteers think of certain words. The idea is that, in the future, thought-recognition software would allow soldiers to transmit messages even if they had brain injuries that prevented them from speaking.

The Associated Press raises the specter of the military’s using such mind-reading technology to interrogate the enemy. But a news release from the university describes only the potential benefits for paralysis and stroke victims.

Michael D’Zmura, chair of Irvine’s department of cognitive sciences, told the AP that the technology, once developed, could never force out thoughts from uncooperative subjects. —Jennifer Ruark