Neurotechnology with AI needs regulation, says Unesco – 07/17/2023 – Science

Neurotechnology is advancing so fast that it threatens human rights and needs global regulation, according to UNESCO, the UN’s scientific and cultural organization.

At a conference of scientific and policy leaders in Paris on Thursday, the agency began to develop a “universal ethical framework” for neurotechnology, which connects computers to the brain and increasingly uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze neural activity.

“When you add AI, you’re putting neurotechnology on steroids,” said Mariagrazia Squicciarini, lead author of a UNESCO report on the accelerating pace of innovation in neurotechnology.

Neurotechnology, including implants to diagnose and treat brain-related disorders, is beginning to improve the lives of people with disabilities, but increased investment in AI-based programs capable of reading people’s minds and storing neural data has raised concerns about its use.

Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for social sciences and humanities, said: “The promise (…) could come at a high cost in terms of human rights and fundamental freedoms if abused. Neurotechnology can affect our identity, autonomy, privacy, feelings, behaviors and general well-being”.

“Advances that many considered science fiction a few years ago are here, and poised to change the very essence of what it means to be human.”

Unesco researchers estimate that private investment in neurotechnology companies such as Onward Medical and Elon Musk’s Neuralink have increased more than 20 times since 2010, reaching US$7.3 billion in 2020. The market for neurotechnology devices is expected to surpass $24 billion by 2027, according to projections.

The report analyzed scientific publications and patents to examine the field’s rapid expansion. The number of neuroscience articles increased from 57,899 in 2011 to 94,456 in 2021, while worldwide patents related to neurotechnology increased from 418 to 1,531 between 2010 and 2020.

One of the speakers at the UNESCO conference, Rafael Yuste, director of the Center for Neurotechnology at Columbia University in New York, is a leading neurobiologist and advocate for international regulation “to protect mental privacy.”

He pointed out that in four studies published last year, not all of which were peer-reviewed, “researchers decoded speech and images from the brains of human volunteers using non-invasive devices that did not require neurosurgery for insertion.”

“All four incorporated advanced AI models to decode the brain data,” said Yuste. “The new algorithms will allow you to decode highly sensitive information, which makes protecting mental privacy even more urgent.”

Regulation is needed because “almost without exception, US and Canadian neurotechnology companies assume full ownership of customer neural data in their user agreements,” he added. “We need to protect mental property, otherwise companies will start storing brain data. They might not decode it today, but AI will allow them to decode it tomorrow.”

Yuste’s own lab has decoded and manipulated the neural processing in the visual cortex of mice so that researchers can “implant hallucinations — make them see things they’re not actually seeing. Manipulating human brain activity in the future is something we should start with.” to be discussed now. It opens up the possibility of a new type of human being in which some of the mental processing takes place outside the body.”

Squicciarini of Unesco said: “We are not against neurotechnology or calling for a moratorium on research, because it has enormous potential to reduce deaths and disabilities caused by neurological disorders.

“But we need a globally coordinated approach to neurotechnology regulation, not just in medicine but also in the consumer market.”

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves