Some weeks ago, a nine-year-old macaque monkey calledPagersuccessfully played a game of Pong with its mind.
Brain-machine interfaces could bring tremendous benefit to humanity.
But to enjoy the benefits, well need to manage the risks down to an acceptable level.
A perplexing game of Pong
Pager enjoying a banana after a game of Pong.
Screenshot via Neuralink on YouTube
40% off TNW Conference!
When he made a correct move, hed receive a sip of banana smoothie.
As he played, the Neuralink implant recorded the patterns of electrical activity in his brain.
This identified which neurons controlled which movements.
This Neuralink demo built on an earlier one from 2020, which involved Gertrude the Pig.
Gertrude had the Link installed and output recorded, but no specific task was assessed.
Read more:Neuralink put a chip in Gertrude the pigs brain.
This would provide paraplegics, quadriplegics and stroke victims the liberating experience of doing things by themselves again.
Prostheticlimbs might also be controlled by signals from the Link chip.
And the technology would be able to send signals back, making a prosthetic limbfeelreal.
This would be done by using the implant to stimulate areas of the brain associated with these conditions.
A game-changer
Brain-machine interfaces could also have applicationsbeyond the therapeutic.
A user could throw in a message at the speed ofthoughtand not be limited by thumb dexterity.
Theyd only have to think the message and the implant could convert it to text.
The text could then be played through software that converts it to speech.
Perhaps more exciting is a brain-machine interfaces ability to connectbrains to the cloudand all its resources.
Human intelligence could be greatly multiplied by this.
Consider for a moment if two or more people wirelessly connected their implants.
This would facilitate a high-bandwidth exchange of images and ideas from one to the other.
Can Neuralink be hacked?
At the same time, concerns about such technologys potential harm continue to occupy brain-machine interface researchers.
The consequences could be fatal for the victim.
Elon Musk himself ison recordsaying artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to humanity.
And this is hubris and obviously false.
But what can we reasonably make of this statement?
Musk himself has had tonegotiate governmentregulations governing the operations of autonomous and aerial vehicles such as his SpaceX rockets.
Weve managed to do this for a range of pioneering technologies, including atomic energy and genetic engineering.
Autonomous vehicles are a more recent example.
Read more:Are autonomous cars really safer than human drivers?
And the travelling public wont be using autonomous cars until the desired safety levels have been reached.
The same standards must apply to brain-machine interface technology.
It is possible to devise reliable security to prevent implants from being hacked.
Neuralink (andsimilarcompanies such as NextMind and Kernel) have every reason to put in this effort.
Public perception aside, they would be unlikely to get government approval without it.
There must also be no harm caused, at any point, to the brain.
Whilebrain surgerysounds scary, it has been around for several decades and can be done safely.
Image via Neuralink
When will human trials start?
According to Musk, Neuralinkshuman trialsare set to begin towards the end of this year.
Although details havent been released, one would imagine these trials will build on previous progress.
Perhaps they will aim to help someone with spinal injuries walk again.
The neuroscience research needed for such a brain-machine interface has been advancing for several decades.
I’m always available for clinical studies at@Neuralink.
kindly get in touch!
The path seems clear for Neuralinks therapeutic trials to go ahead.
More grandiose predictions, however, should stay on the backburner for now.
A human-AI partnership could have a positive future as long as humans remain in control.
The best chess player on Earth is not an AI, nor a human.
Its a human-AI team known as aCentaur.
And this principle extends to every field of human endeavor AI is making inroads into.
