{"id":49074,"date":"2019-08-16T13:43:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T20:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=49074"},"modified":"2019-08-16T13:43:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T20:43:22","slug":"silicon-valley-wants-to-read-your-mind-heres-why-you-should-be-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/silicon-valley-wants-to-read-your-mind-heres-why-you-should-be-worried\/","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley wants to read your mind \u2013 here\u2019s why you should be worried"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Not content with monitoring almost\u00a0everything you do online<\/a>, Facebook now wants to read your mind as well. The social media giant recently announced\u00a0a breakthrough<\/a>\u00a0in its plan to create a device that reads people\u2019s brainwaves to allow them to type just by thinking. And Elon Musk wants to go even further. One of the Tesla boss\u2019s other companies, Neuralink, is\u00a0developing a brain implant<\/a>\u00a0to connect people\u2019s minds directly to a computer.<\/p>\n

Musk admits that he\u00a0takes inspiration<\/a>\u00a0from science fiction, and that he wants to make sure humans can\u00a0\u201ckeep up\u201d with artificial intelligence<\/a>. He seems to have missed the part of sci-fi that acts as a warning for the implications of technology.<\/p>\n

These mind-reading systems could affect our privacy, security, identity, equality and personal safety. Do we really want all that left to companies with philosophies such as that of Facebook\u2019s former mantra, \u201cmove fast and break things<\/a>\u201d?<\/p>\n

Though they sound futuristic, the technologies needed to make brainwave-reading devices are not that dissimilar to the standard MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and EEG (electroencephalography) neuroscience tools used in hospitals all over the world. You can already buy a kit to control a drone\u00a0with your mind<\/a>, so using one to type out words is, in some ways, not that much of a leap. The advance will likely be due to the use of machine learning to sift through huge quantities of data collected from our brains and find the patterns in neuron activity that link thoughts to specific words.<\/p>\n

A brain implant is likely to take a lot longer to develop, and it\u2019s important to separate out the actual\u00a0achievements of Neuralink<\/a>\u00a0from media hype and promotion. But Neuralink has made simultaneous improvements in materials for electrodes and robot-assisted surgery to implant them, packaging the technology neatly so it can be read via USB.<\/p>\n

Facebook and Neuralink\u2019s plans may build on established medical practice. But when companies are collecting thoughts directly from our brains, the ethical issues are very different.<\/p>\n