With a new brain chip implant, the folks at Neuralink demonstrated how a monkey could play the game “Pong” on a device. The installed chip shared the stored human thoughts with the monkey that allowed it to imitate the play as a human would.
These brain chips and bodily implants of electronic devices are catchy and offer tons of benefits for the impaired individuals. However, many are against these advances in technology, saying that they fear the wrong use of it.
The brain chip implant was done years ago, making it that it is not a new technology. However, the Neuralink experiment came with new possibilities and offered advanced learning in the field.
With the new technology comes new questions, so is Neuralinks’s new brain chip. Many are concerned about privacy, data ownership, and biomedical ethics with the advancements in such bodily implants.
“While I’m excited about the therapeutic applications of brain chips for those with movement and memory problems, I worry about the widespread use of brain chips in the future,” cognitive psychologist Susan Schneider told Observer.
A previous statement from the Director, Florida Atlantic University’s Centre for the Future Mind, criticized integrating the human mind with AI. She said, “merging the human mind with AI is like committing suicide.” Moreover, she said that your innermost thoughts and biometric data could be sold to the highest bidder in the absence of any regulations.
Experts referred the brain chip technology as a more invasive version of how social media monetizes your data. Organizations like HIPAA exist to regulate neurological data. However, there is no barrier on companies like Neuralink from obtaining and selling cognitive data via a consumer neural implant.
Wide-scale use of such technology is a far-fetched idea. For now, however, chances for it to outpace the regulations is what scares us the most.