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SallyPainter view more articlesNeuralink and You
Keeping up with AI products is a challenge not for the future but the present. Advances in AI could become like the warning made in the movie Terminator or could possibly be avoided by hooking up humans with their personal AI. Musk’s company Neurolink is the ship for this endeavor.
According to REDOX, this latest technological project is in the earliest of stages. The idea is to implant the AI into the human brain where the software will then upload. The uploaded AI then becomes a functioning part of the brain by merging with consciousness. REDOX compares this blending of technology and the human brain to the movie The Matrix.
The interfacing between the human brain and the AI is called neural lace. This creates a “third layer” within the current two-layers (cortex and limbic system). This new layer would be a “digital layer”.
The digital layer would receive “all external intelligence” and then transmit to the brain. In theory, you could upload whatever information you need, the same way the characters did in the movie The Matix. You would have instant access to information about whatever you needed or desired. In theory, you could upload volumes of information through your AI system.
In addition to having access to endless information, you could “instantly type out all of your emails and messages.”
REDOX reminds that medical electrode arrays are already being used for neurodegenerative disease therapy for Parkinson’s and epilepsy. This is the most likely place for Musk’s AI interfacing with the human brain will begin. Such AI therapies will have to demonstrate their effectiveness to win FDA approval. Once the first green light is given for AI interfacing with the human brain, it’s just a matter of time before the technology advances to Husk’s original vision.
The Unknowns
While getting approval for the first human trials is a big challenge, there are still so many things unknown about the function of the human brain. REDOX points out that bandwidth may be a “real limiting factor.”
Would the AI be able to keep up? How fast could the communication be between the brain’s neurons and the AI? No one has the answer to this and many other questions that would arise when melding the human brain and AI. It’s speculated that the research needed to establish how the interfacing would affect human brain or how best to plug-in this kind technology will be a long process.
There is competition in the field of neural interface. Companies like Kernel are on a mission to use neural interface for treating “disease and dysfunction, illuminate the mechanisms of intelligence, and extend cognition.”
REDOX reports that “Harvard and Palo Alto Research Center are also working extensively on the hardware involved in brain-machine interfaces.” Their research has led them to create “microcoils”. This technology stimulates specific areas of the brain with the goal of overcoming deafness and blindness.
Newsweek reports that the scientific paper describes this as a “flexible circuit that could be injected into the brains of living mice in order to interact with neurons.” ()
The Harvard University co-author of the paper, Charles Lieber told Newsweek, “We have to walk before we can run, but we think we can really revolutionize our ability to interface with the brain.”
Cyborgs among Us?
How will humans react to the introduction of AI human interfacing? Many will eagerly embrace it with anticipated excitement, while others may be adamantly opposed to it. Some may even feel that a cyborg society goes against all things human, while others will see it simply as the next logical step in human evolution. Only time will reveal if this is a positive or negative step in the human experience.
References & Image Credits:
(1) Redox Engine
(2) Newsweek
(3) photo credit: OnInnovation via Flickr
