Social media giant Facebook is working on mind reading technology that raises staggering ethical questions. The company is funding research on machines that will be able to pick up thoughts from a person's neurons. The technology will work on translating the neurons into thoughts.
The brain-computer interface (BCI) program was first announced in 2017, and outlined a wearable device that is non-invasive and will allow users to be able to type on the screen by simply imagining themselves talking.
The technology would allow paralysis sufferers to communicate in an entirely new way without lifting a finger. The company is supporting research that is being done at the University of California, San Francisco that is helping patients suffering from neurological damage to be able to speak based off of real-time brain data.
One study found that brain activity that is recorded while a person speaks can be decoded into text on a screen almost instantly. Researchers were able to detect a set of full spoken words and phrases in brain activity in real time. Researchers have only been able to translate a small set of words and phrases, but researchers are working to expand these translatable terms.
Initial studies, where thoughts have been able to be translated from thoughts to words on a screen, involved three patients with epilepsy who have electrodes implanted. Facebook will be funding an additional study that allows for non-invasive wearables to be used on participants that are no longer able to speak.
Groups concerned with the technology question the ethical and privacy concerns associated with companies knowing a person's thoughts. The implications are massive, with the possibility of the information being used by a Facebook ads company to display highly-relevant ads or tailor information directly correlating to what the person is thinking.
Facebook is working on determining how and if light will be able to track brain activity. The studies involve near-infrared light that will measure the brain's oxygen saturation levels. The technology is still in its infancy, but researchers envision wearable glasses with augmented reality that will be able to help a person perform the equivalent of a mouse click, send emails and text messages using only their brains.
Elon Musk's Neuralink company is also working on similar technology that will be able to send your thoughts directly to a computer screen. The US military, Kernel and Paradromics are all working in this field of technology to allow people to control devices, and even smartphones or computers, with thought alone.
