How Tech Companies Are Making Brain Hacking A Reality

How Tech Companies Are Making Brain Hacking A Reality

Tech companies and researchers are developing tech that could pave the way to merging natural brain function with artificial intelligence (AI).

Elon Musk's vision for a "neural lace" interface has brought the concept of AI-connected brains to the forefront.

As he explained in remarks at a June 2016 conference, Musk famously believes humans must bring the power of the internet into our minds to remain relevant in an AI-driven society of the future.

"If you assume any rate of advancement in AI, we will be left behind by a lot. Even the benign situation if you have an ultra-intelligent AI, we would be so far below them in intelligence that we’d be like a pet, basically, like a house cat." –Elon Musk

Musk's brain-tech startup Neuralink is using its $27M in disclosed funding to advance this vision for a "direct cortical interface" (or "neural lace" technology) that would allow artificial intelligence systems to be layered into our cognitive function – giving us the enhanced smarts and "functionality" necessary to keep ahead of AI machines.

But Musk is far from the first pioneer to seek ways to augment human brains with technology and "AI for the mind."

Across various research disciplines, neuroscientists and technologists have been working on these concepts for years, with involvement from large companies, startups, and government entities alike.

Rendering from IBM of its 'brain-inspired' microchip, TrueNorth.

  • Researchers at IBM are currently developing a system to analyze brain waves and use AI to predict epileptic seizures.
  • The US Department of Defense is funding companies creating highly sophisticated brain-sensor implants.
  • Kernel, which has raised $100M, hopes to initiate clinical trials for a brain-implantable microchip they call a "neuroprosthetic." 

And while Facebook made headlines in April 2017 with the announcement that it had 60 engineers working on a non-invasive "direct brain interface" that could make it possible to type with your mind, brain tech is one area where the social media giant is playing catchup with the broader scientific community.

Already, brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) and brain-computing interfaces (BCIs) can enable paralyzed people and stroke victims to control external machines with their thoughts – no brain surgery required.

Mastering 'mind control' of machines

Research into brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) and brain-computing interfaces (BCIs) has been going on since the 1990s. Today, BCIs and BMIs can capture enough brain information and decode it rapidly enough to control external hardware and software – enabling the operation of things such as keyboards or artificial limbs, as the examples below show.

  • Earlier this year, the BrainGate Neural Interface System enabled three clinical trial participants with paralysis to “type” via direct brain control at the highest speeds and accuracy levels reported to date by "pointing and clicking by thinking about the movement of their own hand." (Watch it happen in the video below.)
  • BCI research being done at the University of Adelaide in Australia might soon help stroke patients recover from debilitating damage by measuring brain electrical signals from the surface of the scalp: One patient assessed for a recent study (published in the journal Royal Society Open Science) achieved a 36% improvement in hand motor function in just ten 30-minute training sessions.

Moving to 'precision communication' with the brain

As impressive as the aforementioned BCIs are, they are many miles removed from Elon Musk’s vision for a direct, invisible interface between the mind and the digital world.

For science to reach a point at which always-on, internet-connected devices and systems could modify the organic function of our brains – rather than simply sending neural signals that engage specific actions – we’ll first need implantable brain sensors capable of reading information from many millions of individual brain cells simultaneously as well as decoding them in real time.

  • DARPA has awarded a $15.8M grant to a Columbia Engineering team that is working to develop a BCI that would read more than one million electrodes from a single microchip. (BrainGate's, for comparison, can read just 100.)

As microchips get more advanced, startups re also working to advance BCIs and get us closer to a brain-machine interlace future, for medical purposes and beyond.

  • Neurable, which has $2.3M in funding, is building non-invasive BCIs (shown at right) for "immersive computing" in virtual-reality and mixed-reality gaming: By detecting and analyzing changes in brain activity, Neurable believes it can use thoughts to guide the trajectory of video games and other media content viewed through AR/VR headsets.
  • BrainCo, with $5.5M raised, is applying a similar concept to the classroom: By using brain-signal detection to monitor and analyze the attention levels of students wearing its Focus 1 BMI headset, BrainCo says it can help schools "optimize student engagement" and craft better teaching strategies. (BrainCo's founder launched the startup to improve education in China.)
  • Paradromics is working to develop "massively parallel neural interfaces" capable of decoding brain information in real time. Paradromics says its "next-generation brain-machine interfaces" will ultimately "increase the data transmission rate between brains and computers 1,000 fold." They call this Broadband For The Brain.

Connected cortexes of the future

As the examples of Neurable and BrainCo show, brain signals (as data) have commercial application across many different purposes.

With BrainCo, for example, the idea of optimizing teaching and learning is all about students' brain data: The information culled from BrainCo devices would be used by the company's clients for objective analysis of how to improve teacher and student performance.

BrainCo's brainwave-database vision may be grand – and unnerving – but the concept of using brain data for purposes related to attention-monitoring and engagement has already infiltrated the worlds of marketing science and entertainment.

By understanding how attention and engagement levels rise or drop throughout the course of a movie, for example, entertainment studios can modify trailers (or even elements of plot and character) to better appeal to audiences.

Excerpt from 2016 research study in the Association for Consumer Research.

In many ways this is an extension of the way companies already use data on human behavior to guide strategy – just as Netflix uses the data it collects on users' viewing activity to guide the content it produces.

In the BMI/BCI version of this, the data on individuals is more granular and instaneous – tracking not only what content users consume, but how their brains behave as they consume it.

And that's just the beginning.

By unlocking greater knowledge about the electrical signals that underpin our voluntary actions, scientists may be able to plug the related brain-signal data into AI systems to predict our decisions.

Research into the neurosignals behind our "free will" actions (such as moving a limb, or selecting something from a choice of options) is already underway – with potential applications for behavior modification, health improvement, and much, much more.

CB Insights takes an in-depth look at opportunities and developments across the "brain tech" space in a new briefing on the CBI Intelligence Portal.

Read the full post for more insights on how tech is advancing the "co-evolution" of humans alongside machines...

Click here to read!
Gerben Van Camp

Business analyst bij Acerta

6y

I can see the potential benefits. But I sure hope it can be harnessed in an offline mode. Thougths are the only thing which are 100% private. And I'd like it to stay that way. The world isn't ready for public thinking. Because how long would it take for a thought-police to show up...?

Like
Reply
James Mackie

Freelance Video Editor + Videographer

6y
Like
Reply
Joseph A. Sprute

Global Actuary Investment Authority Consultant

6y

there is a big secret in store.... and many about to find out the answer @death is only the beginning

Like
Reply
Dr. X.

Associate Researcher at University of Quebec. Invited Professor, ESIGELEC France.

6y

Great! In fact, the machine also have intelligence, I call it MSI(Machine Spontaneity Intelligence).

Like
Reply

To view or add a comment, sign in

Insights from the community

Explore topics