Artificial intelligence becomes more reality and less fantasy every day. With the advancing funding and technology, the world continues to develop, likely, we will soon have a brain-computer interface or BCI. This is a form of technology in which a computer can read what's happening in your mind or write information into your brain via electrical signals. There have been noninvasive types of BCIs before used in labs to read brain wave information.
Short-term applications of noninvasive BCIs are being used such as using EEG headbands to help reduce stress and improve meditation and to control interfaces with computers and video games. Boston-based startup Neurable showed a demo of a person controlling objects in virtual reality using a combination of brain signals and eye-tracking.
Elon Musk has been working on a type of BCI called Neuralink. This device is considered an invasive BCI and its purpose is to merge the human brain with artificial intelligence. This would make us smarter and more able to compete with superintelligent artificial intelligence, ultimately preventing an AI apocalypse. This device will also allow wireless communication between a brain and the internet through a surgical implant.
A lot of BCIs focus on reading intentions from the brain and then using neural
Pathways that are not functioning to move limbs and use prosthetics. It is also used to bypass injured areas to be able to send information directly to the brain. Most of these devices need approval from the FDA to even begin to operate and be implanted into our brains.
Neuroscientists have been building a technology called BrainGate. Its purpose is to wirelessly connect the human brain to computers. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have begun to create their forms of this idea. By having the attention of such powerful men like there, it means that there is potential for a giant leap forward with this. However, we might have gone too far with our dependence on computers and technologies.
While it is slowly becoming a reality and the near-term applications will mostly benefit society, the dangers of dystopian applications are becoming more real, too. As a result, we urgently need to start grappling with legal, ethical and moral issues.
There can be a lot of ethical and moral issues when dealing with trials and patients with BCIs. There is typically a lot of change and problems when it comes to personhood, stigma, autonomy, privacy, and justice. When connecting a computer to somebody's brain neuroscientists are given full access to somebody’s thoughts and actions. This has to do with the fact that most BCI users are paralyzed or unable to do much. These patients also rely heavily on other networks and the input they provide for other patients which can sometimes leave a lot of uncertainty and guessing.
Another very big ethical issue as mentioned previously has to do with a person's humanity and sense of self. This has specifically shown in a BCI study done on epilepsy patients. There was a variety of resulting perspectives on the sense of self of the patients. Some individuals saying that it made them feel more confident and independent, while others felt like they were not themselves anymore, with one patient expressing that the BCI was an extension of herself and fused with part of her body.
Brain-computer interfaces hold both thrilling and terrifying possibilities. It's exciting to be able to interact with others through thinking but allowing others the opportunity to read your mind is terrifying. It's thrilling to be able to manipulate a light switch or drive a car with your mind; the prospect of someone manipulating your mind is terrifying. It might be interesting to have a flawless memory. However, being able to hack into your memory will be frightening. It would be fantastic if artificial intelligence could be used to make us smarter; however, developing artificial intelligence that could become much smarter and more powerful than us could become very dangerous.
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