Neurotechnology using artificial intelligence opens up new possibilities in healthcare that did not exist before.
Companies and researchers have been exploring implantable devices that interpret signals in the brain and translate them into words or physical commands for decades. The technology isn’t 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 with ALS who had a Stentrode device implanted in his brain. The device, developed by Synchron, a neurotech company backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, contains a small electrode that converts brain signals into physical actions, allowing Rodney to type on a keyboard using only his thoughts.
While neurotechnology can empower patients like Rodney, AI could make less invasive neurotechnology more accessible to mainstream consumers and fuel the next generation of consumer-oriented technology products.
According to Precedence Research, the market for neurotech devices was estimated to be worth approximately $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) are researching devices that can decode thoughts and perceptions without the need for invasive surgery.
But as Big Tech makes strides in building on 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 fortress of privacy, and we have given up every other aspect of privacy that exists,” said Nita Farahany, a futurist, tech 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 was experiencing some problems with the implant.
The Neuralink implant, which has more than 1,000 electrodes and 64 wires, experienced a malfunction after some wires withdrew from the brain, reducing the number of effective electrodes. In a blog post, the company said this would not negatively impact the function of the implant.
Musk isn’t the only CEO trying to make neurotechnology a reality. At least thirty companies are currently selling or developing neurotechnology.
For example, Apple has a patent for AirPods that incorporate EEG technology to measure brain activity. Given concerns about Apple’s sluggish iPhone sales, some investors are hoping the company will release exciting new products that will generate additional revenue.
Healthcare has long been a goal for Apple. CEO Tim Cook explained this strategy in 2019, saying, “If you zoom out into the future… and ask the question, what was Apple’s greatest contribution to humanity, it will be about health.”
Meta is another company that is funding a team of neuroscientists who are further driving this research to understand how humans process language.
In a study conducted by Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) group, researchers flashed an image to participants for 1.5 seconds. Users sitting in a neuroimaging machine thought about the image they saw, and AI could use that brain activity data to recreate the image.
“Right now, this is not a mind-reading technology,” Jean-Rémi King, the lead neuroscientist who worked on the project, told Yahoo Finance. “What we can try to do is reconstruct the image they see at a given moment so we can really decode the perception.”
The results weren’t perfect, as shown in the image below, but they were close enough that the research team initially thought the test was flawed.
“The initial reaction was… let’s try to figure out where we could have found bugs that could explain the quality of these results,” King said.
King emphasized that consumer-oriented products are not the end goal of his research, and Meta says its goal is “to help people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries communicate.”
But at the same time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made the company’s neurotechnology ambitions clear since 2021, when he started touting a bracelet that uses electromyography to detect neural signals, allowing users to use the subtlest of hand movements on a screen typing and clicking.
“I think we’re going to see some neural interfaces for consumers soon,” Zuckerberg said in April. “I’m not talking about something that goes into your brain. I’m talking about something you wear on your wrist.’
The privacy problem
There’s a big question underlying all this research and product development: what would our world look like if Big Tech companies could literally read your mind?
Non-invasive brain monitoring devices could be revolutionary in medicine for patients, but not everyone is excited about the prospect of Big Tech gaining access to people’s minds.
Proponents of Neurorights believe that our thoughts are the last piece of data we leave to ourselves. That’s why they’re now fighting for legislation that would protect mental privacy, while technology companies continue to fund brain scan research.
“There is absolutely no regulation,” said Dr. Rafael Yuste, a professor of biological sciences and neuroscience at Columbia University. “It’s like the Wild West.”
After years of research, Yuste discovered a way to control the minds of mice using lasers. The experiment scared him so much 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 law to include neural 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 room we have for mental respite is actually our brains and mental states,” Farahany said. “It’s kind of the last piece of the puzzle.”
Farahany has a proposed framework for neurorights law that calls for more privacy in general, with “a right to self-determination over our brains and mental experiences.”
According to Farahany, it would still allow patients who want – and even need – neurotechnology to have 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 reflected: “Hopefully it will reach more people.”
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