Chips in Brains: Are We Ready?
Neuralink announced their first successful brain chip implantation in a human. Are policy-makers ready for what’s next?
Yesterday marked a big milestone Elon Musk’s ‘Neuralink’ — they successfully implanted their wireless brain chip into a human for the first time.
Although not the first team to do so (see: restoration of walking after paralysis), Neuralink joins a small group of companies and academics developing brain-computer interfaces that have completed at least one successful brain chip implant.
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are computer-based systems that interact with our brain and spinal cord and directly connect it with an external device. Neuralink’s BCI device is made up of a chip and electrode arrays of over 1000 thin and flexible conductors that is threaded into the cerebral cortex. The goal, right now, is to allow individuals with neurological disorders (e.g. paralysis, vision loss) become independent once again.
The actual success of this clinical trial can only be seen in the next few years. However, what cannot wait is the regulation of such neurotechnology. Neurotechnology may be in its early stages, but if we wait to think about policy when BCIs are socially entrenched, it may be too late.
This medical device does what no other has done before: blur the fine line separating the natural body (the brain) and technology. We will need to reckon with is the question of what it means to be an autonomous human. Firstly, though, we need to address the major privacy and cybersecurity concerns associated with neurotech.
Privacy
BCIs threaten to publicise our most intimate biodata — neural data. When our thoughts are no longer private, it implies we no longer have the capacity to influence our own actions and intentions, affecting our sense of agency. Losing the ability to keep information confidential undermines what it means to be a free society, a democracy and have human rights.
Neural data has largely remained out of American data privacy legislation. This month, in January 2024, Colorado introduced a bill to amend their privacy legislation and include “biological data”, specifically defining this term to include “neural data”. This legislation is the first of its kind in the United States, and hopefully will set the precedent for future federal and state privacy bills.
The news of Neuralink’s milestone needs to push regulators into discussing neural data privacy, and its associated security.
Cybersecurity
As more and more neural data becomes easily accessible via BCIs, data privacy increasingly relies on effective cybersecurity implementation. At the end of 2023, the direct-to-consumer genetics company 23&Me admitted to a data breach where hackers accessed genetic data of 7 million users — half of its total user base. This data was then publicised and sold on the dark web for a few dollars per genetic profile, with hackers boasting that they had accounts of those who were “Ashkenazi Jews”, “broadly European” or “broadly Arabian.”
Neural data and genetic data are both unique to their owner, and thus have real potential to cause significant harm if it finds its way in the wrong hands. What happens when our neural data is hacked? What can you learn from it? Having access to one’s brain activity can be seen as analogous to mind-reading. Studies by Martinovic et al. (2012) and Rosenfeld et al. (2006) have shown that by analyzing neural data, sensitive information can successfully revealed with a high accuracy rate, such as debit card numbers and concealed autobiographical information.
Neuralink’s goal to stimulate and inhibit neuronal activity at the individual neuron level is ideal for clinical use. But, it simultaneously introduces a lot of vulnerabilities for cyberattacks to the brain and even brain-hijacking. Policymakers can model legislation from existing genetic data protections, but need to take the brain’s complexity into account.
Neurotechnology pushes us to grapple with the age-old race: science outpacing law. Given the enigmatic nature of the brain and the speed of technological development, we really don’t know what is around the corner. That doesn’t mean we can’t be prepared for it.
