The Ethics of Brain-Computer Interfaces - Digital Explorers' Diary #47

Welcome to the Digital Explorers' Diary #47!

A curated collection of thought-provoking topics about interactive technologies, AI, web3, sense-making, entrepreneurship, and psychology.

Executive summary:

• The rise of Brain-Computer Interfaces and related ethics,
• Adobe continues to release AI tools,
• Elon Musk’s latest venture toward Artificial General Intelligence,
• Roblox will be available on the Quest VR headset and Zoom in Horizons Workrooms.

BCI and the Ethics Of Technology

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) is a growing field in technology, and with it comes new ethical questions.

For many years now, many labs and startups have been experimenting with using electroencephalograms to detect what is going on in our brains. More recently, to be able to have two-way communication between the brain and the machine, companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink are working on direct implants - they recently got approval for human trials.

The applications are numerous.

In healthcare, of course, these devices might be able to cure diseases like Parkinson's or epilepsy, prevent strokes, and, if we look far into the future, affect any issues that have their source in the brain.

Accessibility is the most immediate application. BCI will enable people with paralysis to interface with the world: using a computer, communicating, moving an electric wheelchair…

Further ahead are consumer-oriented applications. Can you imagine removing the need for a keyboard and mouse by being able to directly think what you’d like the computer to do and, within milliseconds, have it executed and done?

Imagine further ahead—a complete blend between AI-powered machines and humans creating a network of inter-connected beings, a one-mind planet. Think Avatar, but instead of interfacing with nature, we interface with the digital.

I won’t expand on the many ways this can go wrong; I’m sure you can think of plenty. This is, of course, many years ahead… But we don’t have to wait for BCI to go sideways; in fact, it has already happened.

One example: a few years back, an Australian woman was implanted with a device that would detect signs of epilepsy in her brain and signal the likeliness of a seizure to happen. She said it changed her life; she became autonomous, a new person; she “became one” with the device.

Unfortunately, the company that made the device went bankrupt, and she had to let go of it against her will. This Blade Runner-style story raises very important questions. Is it unethical to remove a BCI device? Or even, as this paper suggests, a question of human rights?

These are essential questions to ask early as this field emerges. With every iteration of new technology, the stakes are higher. At an even larger scale than IA, the positive impacts are amazing, while the negative ones are terrifying.

This Week's News:

1. Elon Musk has announced the creation of his next venture, X.ai. With a very small team of bright minds with a very high computing power per person, they plan a very high shipping schedule, with the first release being just a few weeks ahead. Their goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe“ - in short, to create a new Artificial Intelligence that has humanity's values in mind, a “maximally curious“ AI. The only way, Musk said, is to create a safe AI. I’m puzzled about this. Musk has a track record of on-point futurism (Tesla, SpaceX) but is also known for going rogue and, whether you agree with him or not, has very opinionated ideologies. Remember, with the current models, we don’t know the set of facts that an AI uses to draw a conclusion. Then, if X.ai need to generate answers to fundamental problems, its team will need to engineer a completely different model architecture, one that can explain its conclusions. Otherwise, who would believe it?
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2. A couple of updates from Meta:
   Roblox, one of the most used virtual worlds, will be available on the Quest headsets. It’s great news, Meta has indeed been, for a long time, in quest - pun intended - for a large community of users. Zoom gets integrated into Horizon Workrooms. Will this bring more adoption into Horizon by reducing friction for meetings?
   Remember: the reality of enterprise is really different from what surfaces on social media. Reducing friction for meeting scheduling with a widespread tool will likely drive adoption. Meta
3. Related: Adobe continues its push on AI-assisted creativity with a preview of «Project Gingerbread», their next media AI-generation tool; it allows a more elaborate control of the output by using simple 3D shapes as an initial layout.
   Stable Diffusion can already do this, but Adobe tools being so widely used and easy to use will certainly, here as well, drive adoption.
   Filip Szymanski’s twitter.

From the Podcast

Every week, I’m teaming up with Guillaume Brincin and Sébastien Spas on the Lost In Immersion podcast. This week:

1. This discussion sparked the inspiration for today’s articles. We looked at Galea’s device, a Brain-Computer Interface plugged into a Virtual Reality headset. Still a research project, their main goal is accessibility, BCI's current low-hanging fruit. It’s worth noting that they are not only using EEG: it also monitors the facial muscles and has eye tracking.
2. Next, we have a look at BMW’s Augmented Reality glasses. Except for their great design, everything else seems not practical or unsafe, and the feedbacks are also quite critical.
3. Related, Audi’s latest concept car has no dashboard. Instead, all information is given to the driver through a Mixed Reality device, the Magic Leap. The goal of a concept car is to be a futurist and showcase its innovation capabilities. It’s a great achievement, but here as well, many years will pass until such a system proves its usefulness. Maybe not until all cars are self-driving?
   Check out the full video below!
4. Unity, the leading game-engine, has entered the AI era and is already making developers angry. Indeed, similar to OpenAI, the data that users will generate will be used for further training. For programmers, the code is their creation, and having it “stolen” is a no-go. For further exploration of such issues, see my article here.

Watch the podcast below, and tune in at 10 am UTC on Tuesdays on Twitch, and listen to the replays on Youtube!

Did this newsletter spark some ideas? There are a lot of ways we can work together:

• A quick-fire, 30-minute brainstorm with me - book it here!
• We can ideate, prototype, and build your experiences - contact us here!