by Neurotechnology using artificial intelligence is opening up new possibilities in healthcare that did not exist before.
For decades companies and researchers have been exploring implantable devices that interpret signals in the brain and translate them into words or physical commands. The technology is not new, but now, artificial intelligence is accelerating progress, allowing people affected by debilitating diseases to communicate in ways that were previously physically impossible.
These devices have been game changers for people like Rodney, a patient living with ALS who had a Stentrode device implanted in his brain. The device, developed by Synchron, a neurotechnology company backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, contains a tiny electrode that converts brain signals into physical actions, allowing Rodney to type on a keyboard using his thoughts only.
While neurotechnology can be empowering for patients like Rodney, AI could make less invasive neurotechnology more accessible to everyday consumers and inspire the next generation of consumer-oriented technology products.
According to Precedence Research, the market for neurotech devices was worth about $15 billion in 2023, and is expected to reach over $55 billion by 2032. That’s a big reason why Big Tech companies like Meta (META) and Apple (AAPL). research into devices that can decode thoughts and perceptions without requiring invasive surgery.
But as Big Tech moves to fuel neurotechnological advances in the medical world, experts have warned that it could put our most valuable data – the privacy of our thoughts – at risk.
“This is our last bastion of privacy, and we’ve given up every other aspect of privacy there is,” said Nita Farahany, a futurist, technology ethicist, and author of “The Battle for Your Brain.”
Big Tech wants to read your mind
Elon Musk’s Neuralink made headlines early this year when the company implanted its first human patient with a brain-computer interface (BCI), although the company said Thursday it had some issues with the implant.
The Neuralink implant, which has more than 1,000 electrodes and 64 threads, experienced a malfunction after some threads were withdrawn from the brain, which reduced the number of effective electrodes. In a blog post, the company said this would not have a negative impact on how the implant works.
Musk isn’t the only CEO trying to make neurotechnology a reality. At least 30 companies are selling or developing neurotechnology.
Apple, for example, has a patent for AirPods with embedded EEG technology to measure brain activity. Given concerns about Apple’s slow iPhone sales, some investors are expecting the company to come out with exciting new products that will drive additional revenue.
Healthcare has long been a goal of Apple. CEO Tim Cook laid out this strategy in 2019, saying, “If you zoom out into the future … and ask the question, what is Apple’s greatest contribution to humanity, it will be about health .”
Meta is another company that funds a team of neuroscientists pushing this research to understand how people process language.
In one study conducted by Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) group, researchers placed an image in front of participants for 1.5 seconds. Users sitting in a neuroimaging machine imagined the image they saw, and AI was able to use that brain activity data to reconstruct the image.
“At the moment, this is not mind-reading technology,” Jean-Rémi King, the lead neuroscientist working on the project, told Yahoo Finance. “What we can try to do is recreate the image they see at that particular time, so we actually decode the perception.”
The results weren’t perfect, as can be seen in the image below, but they were close enough that the research team initially thought the test was flawed.
“The first reaction was … let’s try to find out where we had some bugs that could explain the quality of these results,” King said.
King emphasized that consumer-oriented products are not the ultimate goal of his research, and Meta says the aim is to “help people who have suffered traumatic brain injury communicate.”
But at the same time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has clarified the company’s neurotechnology ambitions from 2021, when he started touting an armband that uses electromyography to detect neural signals, allowing users to type and click on a screen with it the smallest hand movements.
“I think we’ll start getting some consumer neural interfaces soon,” Zuckerberg said in April. “I’m not talking about something that jacks into your brain. I’m talking about something you wear on your wrist.”
The privacy problem
Underlying all of this research and product development is a big question: What will our world look like if Big Tech companies can literally read your mind?
Non-invasive brain monitoring devices could revolutionize medicine for patients, but not everyone is thrilled with the prospect of Big Tech having access to people’s thoughts.
Neurorights advocates believe that our thoughts are the last piece of data we have left for ourselves. That’s why they are now fighting for legislation that would protect mental privacy as technology companies continue to fund brain scanning research.
“There is no regulation,” said Dr. Rafael Yuste, professor of biological sciences and neuroscience at Columbia University. “It’s like the Wild West.”
After years of research, Yuste found a way to control the thoughts of mice using lasers. He was so horrified by the experiment that he co-founded the Neurorights Foundation in an effort to protect thought privacy.
And already, concerns about the privacy implications of neurotechnology are driving policy change. In April, Colorado passed a bill that expanded the state’s privacy act to include neurological rights – the first of its kind in the US. Similar legislation is also on the table in states such as California and Minnesota.
“The only space we have for mental recovery is our brain and our mental states,” Farahany said. “It’s kind of the final piece of the puzzle.”
Farahany has proposed a framework for neurorights legislation that argues for more privacy overall, with “a right to self-determination of our brain and mental experiences.”
According to Farahany, it would still allow patients who want — and even need — access to it.
As for Rodney, when I asked him via WhatsApp what he hopes his Stentrode device will achieve in the long term, he thought back: “I hope it gets to more people.”
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