If you thought telepathy and mind control were the stuff of science fiction, think again: advances in artificial intelligence are bringing about medical breakthroughs once thought impossible, including devices that can actually read minds and alter brains.
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There are about 30 neurotechnology devices currently being sold on the Internet, including Emotiv, said Dr. Shawn Pawzawski, a neurologist at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital, who calls it the first commercial brain-computer interface. “This device lets you use your mind to control a computer or do anything you want with your mind.”
Pausawski says the technology could revolutionize medicine, allowing people who cannot move or speak to communicate with just their thoughts and facial expressions. “With this device, you can move the cursor to the letter you want, and if you want that letter, all you have to do is smile to indicate that you want to type that letter.”
Most of these devices sell for between $200 and $400 and work by peering into the brain and, in some cases, altering it.
Pausawski showed me a headband called Somnee, which is equipped with sensors that send small electrical pulses to the brain, “so it actually regulates and stimulates the brain to help you get better sleep.”
Neurotechnology has the potential to not only improve brain function, but also identify disorders, he says. At UCHealth, he uses neurotechnology to detect epileptic seizures in real time. “We’ve never been able to do that before. This takes the guesswork out of it and allows us to change medications in real time.”
Commercially available devices aren’t regulated by the FDA because they’re sold for health benefits, but Pauszowski says the ones he’s tested work as advertised. If the at-home tech is impressive, the devices being used in labs are even more impressive: Elon Musk has developed an implantable chip that allows people to move a computer cursor with their thoughts; Apple, Meta and Open-AI are also working on neurotech devices.
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Pauzawski said our brainwaves are like coded signals, and the researchers used artificial intelligence to identify the frequencies of certain words and convert thoughts into text with 40 percent accuracy. “After a few years, we’ll probably be at 80 to 90 percent accuracy,” he said.
Not only words, but diseases such as Alzheimer’s, anxiety, and addiction all have distinctive brainwave patterns, and researchers are currently working to use electrical stimulation to change the frequencies and areas of the brain where these diseases originate, potentially curing them.
“The benefits are enormous,” Pausawski said. “Patients will have dozens of options.”
But the benefits come with risks, he says: “Our brains make us who we are, and they’re some of the most sensitive data we could ever share with anyone.”
This is the kind of data that insurance companies can use to discriminate, law enforcement can use to interrogate, and advertisers can use to manipulate. Governments can also get into our heads and, as technology advances, change how we think, feel, and remember.
“No one wants to live in a world where this misuse and abuse exists,” Pausawski said.
But while medical research facilities are subject to privacy laws, private companies that are amassing huge amounts of brain data are not. According to a survey by the NeuroRights Foundation, two-thirds of private companies already share or sell data to third parties. And most of them don’t disclose where the data is stored, how long it’s stored for, who has access to it, or what happens if there’s a security breach…
That’s why Pauszowski, medical director of the NeuroRights Foundation, led the passage of a first-in-the-nation bill in Colorado that would include biological and brain data in state privacy law when the data is used to identify an individual, similar to fingerprints.
“This is a first step, but there’s still a long way to go,” he said.
As companies and countries race to access, analyze and modify our brains, Pausawski suggests that privacy protections should be a given. “It’s everything about us: all of our thoughts, emotions, memories and intentions.”
The new law goes into effect on August 8, but it’s unclear which companies it applies to, as it only applies to companies that use data to identify people, and how it will be enforced, especially if the companies are based abroad.
Pauszowski and the NeuroRights Foundation are now working to create federal legislation, and even a global treaty, to ensure that brain data doesn’t become the kind of data that can be found shared or sold to third parties, like DNA data sent to genealogy sites.
After all, the privacy of our minds may be the only privacy we have left.
