Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 30 March 2017

Elon Musk’s latest target: Brain-computer interfaces

MAE ANDERSON liver stimulation for treating time; and patients with im-
AP Technology Writer such conditions as Parkin- planted electrodes face a
NEW YORK (AP) — Tech son’s disease, epilepsy and steep learning curve being
billionaire Elon Musk is an- chronic pain. In experi- trained how to use them.
nouncing a new venture ments, implanted sensors “It’s a few decades down
called Neuralink focused have let paralyzed people the road,” said Blake Rich-
on linking brains to comput- use brain signals to oper- ards, a neuroscientist and
ers. ate computers and move assistant professor at the
The company plans to de- robotic arms. Last year , re- University of Toronto. “Cer-
velop brain implants that searchers reported that a tainly within the 21st cen-
can treat neural disorders man regained some move- tury, assuming society
— and that may one day ment in his own hand with doesn’t implode, that is
be powerful enough to put a brain implant. completely possible.”
humanity on a more even Musk’s proposal goes be- Amy Webb, CEO of Future
footing with possible future yond this. Although noth- Today Institute, pointed
superintelligent computers, ing is developed yet, the out that the Neuralink an-
according to a Wall Street company wants to build nouncement is part of a
Journal report citing un- on those existing medical much larger field of hu-
named sources. treatments as well as one man-machine interface re-
Musk, a founder of both day work on surgeries that search, dating back over a
the electric-car company could improve cognitive decade, performed at the
Tesla Motors and the pri- functioning, according to University of Washington,
vate space-exploration the Journal article. Duke University and else-
firm SpaceX, has become Neuralink is not the only where.
an outspoken doomsayer company working on ar- Too much hype from one
about the threat artificial tificial intelligence for the “buzzy” announcement
intelligence might one brain. Entrepreneur Bryan like Neuralink, she said,
day pose to the human Johnson, who sold his pre- could lead to another “AI
race. Continued growth in In this Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015, file photo, Elon Musk, CEO of Tes- vious payments startup Winter.” That’s a reference
AI cognitive capabilities, la Motors Inc., talks about the Model X car at the company’s Braintree to PayPal for $800 to the overhype of AI dur-
he and like-minded crit- headquarters in Fremont, Calif. million, last year started Ker- ing the Cold War, which
ics suggest, could lead to Associated Press nel, a company working on was followed by a back-
machines that can outthink have little in common. confirming Neuralink’s “advanced neural inter- lash and reduced research
and outmaneuver humans In a tweet Tuesday, Musk name and tersely noting faces” to treat disease and funding when its big prom-
with whom they might gave few details beyond the “existential risk” of fail- extend cognition. ises didn’t materialize.
ing to pursue direct brain- RISK OF OVERHYPE “The challenge is, it’s good
interface work. Neuroscientists posit that to talk about potential,”
STIMULATING THE BRAIN the technology that Neu- Webb said. “But the prob-
Some neuroscientists and ralink and Kernel are work- lem is if we fail to achieve
futurists, however, cau- ing on may indeed come that potential and don’t
tion against making overly to pass, though it’s likely to start seeing all these cool
broad claims for neural in- take much longer than the devices and medical appli-
terfaces. four or five years Musk has cations we’ve been talking
Hooking a brain up di- predicted. Brain surgery about then investors start
rectly to electronics is itself remains a risky endeavor; losing their enthusiasm, tak-
not new. Doctors implant implants can shift in place, ing funding out and putting
electrodes in brains to de- limiting their useful life- it elsewhere.”q