Facebook is getting closer to making its brain-reading computer a reality

guest · Jul 31, 2019

Facebook is getting closer to making its brain-reading computer a reality
The early results provide a glimpse into how the technology could be used in augmented reality glasses
July 30, 2019
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/30/facebook-is-still-working-on-its-brain-reading-computer.html

After debuting the idea at its 2017 developer conference, the company said Tuesday it has made progress on developing a noninvasive wearable device that allows people to type using their thoughts.

A study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications showed how researchers were able to use the brain-computer interface to decode speech directly from the human brain onto a screen.
But the successful trials are more likely to be relevant to Facebook’s efforts in developing augmented reality glasses.
Facebook said it doesn’t expect this technology to be available to consumers anytime soon.

“It’s currently bulky, slow, and unreliable,” the company said. “But the potential is significant, so we believe it’s worthwhile to keep improving this state-of-the-art technology over time.”
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guest · Jul 31, 2019

Brain-computer interfaces are developing faster than the policy debate around them
It’s time to talk about what’s possible — and what shouldn’t be
July 31, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/interface/...ook-brain-computer-interface-policy-neuralink

The work itself is fascinating, as you might expect from the subject matter. Brain-computer interfaces aren’t new, but the existing ones aren’t particularly efficient — particularly the ones that don’t involve drilling into your skill. Facebook’s approach relies on high-density electrocorticography, aka ECoG, which implants sensors on the brain and uses them to record brain activity.
And its most recent research apparently showed promise, Adi Robertson reports [...]

That goal remains very far away. But that seems like a good time to ask whether any of this work should, you know, be done in the first place. Antonio Regalado’s piece on the Facebook experiment gets at why:

“To me the brain is the one safe place for freedom of thought, of fantasies, and for dissent,” says Nita Farahany, a professor at Duke University who specializes in neuro-ethics. “We’re getting close to crossing the final frontier of privacy in the absence of any protections whatsoever.”
And so it’s worth noting that Facebook hasn’t ruled out using brain activity for advertising purposes at some point in the future.
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A futuristic headset that reads our minds to let us click through dialog prompts is all well and good. But I worry about how it might be used should the technology get much better than that. And that’s probably a conversation we want to start before Facebook and other companies make too much progress.
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Reality · Aug 2, 2019

And so it’s worth noting that Facebook hasn’t ruled out using brain activity for advertising purposes at some point in the future.
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"Advertising purposes" is just a plausible sounding excuse, with some truth in it. Facebook crossed the line years ago with their whackjob ideas. This is about control.

guest · Aug 15, 2019

Mind-reading technology is closer than you think
August 15, 2019
https://www.fastcompany.com/90388440/mind-reading-technology-is-closer-than-you-think

Tesla founder Elon Musk’s company Neuralink just this summer announced that human trials will move forward next year for an implantable device that can read a user’s mind; [...] results of a brain activity study, backed by Facebook, [...] Nissan unveiled Brain-to-Vehicle technology that would allow vehicles to interpret signals from the driver’s brain;

But, Nita Farahany, a leading scholar on the ethical, legal, and social implications of emerging technologies, who gave a TED Talk on the subject last November, warns that there are currently no safeguards in place to protect against inappropriate use of the data.

“There’s a significant societal interest in being able to listen to the brain activity of, say, a trucker or a pilot,” says Farahany. “But we need space for mental reprieve. It’s fundamental to what it means to be a human [...]"
And think about the implications in business: a company could theoretically use the technology to screen candidates in job interviews, track productivity on the job, and even monitor for dissident thoughts.
"[...] There’s urgency. You have major players like Facebook and Elon Musk investing heavily in healthy populations. If we’re going to get out ahead of it and create a way to safeguard individuals, the time is now to be able to adopt these protections.”
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guest · Sep 9, 2019

Brain hack devices must be scrutinised, say top scientists
September 9, 2019
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49606027

In future, "people could become telepathic to some degree" and being able to read someone else's thoughts raises ethical issues, experts said.
This could become especially worrying if those thoughts were shared with corporations.

In the study - iHuman: Blurring Lines between Mind and Machine - leading scientists in the field lay out the opportunities and risks of brain-to-computer devices.
As part of the report, scientists asked the public what they thought of such interfaces and found strong support for their use in allowing patients to recover from injury or a medical condition.

"While advances like seamless brain-to-computer communication seem a much more distant possibility, we should act now to ensure our ethical and regulatory safeguards are flexible enough for any future development.
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hawki · Sep 22, 2019

"Brains are the last frontier of privacy

Brain–computer interfaces, once used exclusively for clinical research, are now under development at several wealthy startups and a major tech company, and rudimentary versions are already popping up in online stores.

If users unlock the information inside their heads and give companies and governments access, they're inviting privacy risks far greater than today's worries over social media data, experts say — and raising the specter of discrimination based on what goes on inside a person's head..."

https://www.axios.com/brain-privacy...ace-6ba7269e-1553-4395-a6db-3560fead7e24.html

guest · Sep 23, 2019

Facebook buys startup building neural monitoring armband
September 24, 2019
https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/23/facebook-buys-startup-building-neural-monitoring-armband/

Facebook is buying CTRL-labs, a NY-based startup building an armband that translates movement and the wearer’s neural impulses into digital input signals, a company spokesperson tells TechCrunch.
CTRL-labs raised $67 million according to Crunchbase. The startup’s investors include GV, Lux Capital, Amazon’s Alexa Fund, Spark Capital, Founders Fund, among others. Facebook didn’t disclose how much they paid for the startup, but we’re digging around.

Facebook has talked a lot about working on a non-invasive brain input device that can make things like text entry possible just by thinking. So far, most of the company’s progress on that project appears to be taking the form of university research that they’ve funded. With this acquisition, the company appears to be working more closely with technology that could one day be productized.

“We know there are more natural, intuitive ways to interact with devices and technology. And we want to build them,” Facebook AR/VR VP Andrew Bosworth wrote in a post announcing the deal. “It’s why we’ve agreed to acquire CTRL-labs. They will be joining our Facebook Reality Labs team where we hope to build this kind of technology, at scale, and get it into consumer products faster.”
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Bloomberg: Facebook to Buy Startup for Controlling Computers With Your Mind

The world’s largest social network is paying between $500 million and $1 billion, according to people familiar with the deal.

Facebook has been pushing deeper into augmented reality technology, including the development of a hands-free pair of AR glasses. In 2017, it announced a “brain-computer interface” that could someday let people turn their thoughts into actual text on a screen by monitoring signals in the brain. The CTRL-Labs technology is attempting to solve a similar problem.
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guest · Sep 27, 2019

Facebook's 'mind-reading' tech startup deal could completely change how we control computers
September 27, 2019
https://www.zdnet.com/article/faceb...d-completely-change-how-we-control-computers/

Earlier this week, Facebook announced it was acquiring CTRL-labs. The deal was variously reported as either the social media giant acquiring a "mind-reading tech company" or an outfit that makes "neural wristbands". In fact, the reality is much more complex -- and could potentially signal the start of a complete overhaul of how we interact with technology.

As every generation of technology has been subject to a shift in input mechanisms -- from the keyboard to the mouse to touchscreen to voice -- CTRL-labs hopes it's identified the next major way we'll be interacting with our technology: hands-free gestures.
And, rather than use head-worn gear to pick up neural signals, CTRL-labs uses devices worn on the wrist to pick up the neural signals as they arrive at the muscles in the users' hands.

"[...] The technology is a way of capturing that information, decoding it, understanding it, and then short-circuiting the path that we currently use to interact with technology," Adam Berenzweig, head of R&D at CTRL-labs, told ZDNet earlier this month.
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guest · Sep 27, 2019

mood said: ↑

Facebook buys startup building neural monitoring armband
September 24, 2019
https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/23/facebook-buys-startup-building-neural-monitoring-armband/
Bloomberg: Facebook to Buy Startup for Controlling Computers With Your Mind
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CTRL-Labs: Facebook didn't buy a billion-dollar, brain-scanning startup
September 27, 2019
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ctrl-labs-facebook-didnt-buy-a-billion-dollar-brain-scanning-startup/

Facebook's recent acquisition of CTRL-Labs led to many news headlines claiming it had acquired a "brain-scanning" technology. Some reports that connected the dots claimed it would give the social media giant an ability to read people's minds.

It's understandable that people assign all sorts of nefarious agendas to Facebook.
While it's true that the signal to activate your muscles originates in the brain, so, therefore, it could be argued that it is picking up brain signals by proxy -- all you capture is an intent to move a muscle. You cannot pick up what a person is thinking. And the person has to have an "intent" to move the muscle.

Facebook cannot spy on a person's thoughts through the wristband.
Facebook knows a lot about its users, but it cannot read their minds. This acquisition is not as menacing as it has been portrayed.
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guest · Nov 20, 2019

Ctrl-labs CEO: We’ll have neural interfaces in less than 5 years
November 20, 2019
https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/20/ctrl-labs-ceo-well-have-neural-interfaces-in-less-than-5-years/

It can be a bit difficult to wrap your brain around what exactly neural interface startup Ctrl-labs is doing with technology. That’s ironic, given that Ctrl-labs wants to let your brain directly use technology by translating mental intent into action.
The acquisition hasn’t closed yet, so Reardon has not spoken to anyone at the social media giant since signing the agreement. He was, however, eager to tell us more about the neural interface technology so we could glean why Facebook (and the tech industry at large) is interested.

In short, Ctrl-labs wants us to interact with technology not via a mouse, a keyboard, a touchscreen, our voice, or any other input we’ve adopted. Reardon and his team expect that in a few years we will be able to use individual neurons — not thoughts — to directly control technology.
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guest · Jan 2, 2020

Mind Control for the Masses—No Implant Needed
Just strap on the device and think
January 2, 2020
https://www.wired.com/story/nextmind-noninvasive-brain-computer-interface/

When Sid Kouider showed up at Slush, the annual startup showcase in Helsinki, wearing an ascot cap and a device he claimed would usher in a new era of technological mind control, no one thought he was crazy. No, he was merely joining the long line of entrepreneurs (see: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg) who believe that we will one day manage our machines with our thoughts.

NextMind, makes a non-invasive neural interface that sits on the back of one’s head, and translates brain waves into data that can be used to control compatible software.
As he gins up interest in his developer kit, Kouider is pitching the idea that NextMind’s device and other non-invasive neural interfaces of its ilk will be like the touchscreen, or the computer mouse: the thing that upends the way we interact with our personal technology.
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guest · Jan 5, 2020

NextMind is building a real-time brain computer interface, unveils Dev Kit for $399
January 5, 2020
https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/05/...n-computer-interface-unveils-dev-kit-for-399/

NextMind is developing a brain-computer interface that translates signals from the visual cortex into digital commands. We tried NextMind’s device, which lets you input commands into computers and AR/VR headsets with your visual attention. Eventually, the Paris-based startup wants to let you do the same with your visual imagination.

We spoke with NextMind CEO Sid Kouider ahead of CES 2020, where his company is unveiling a dev kit shipping to select developers and partners this month for $399. After the early access period, a second limited run (waitlist) of dev kits will begin shipping in Q2 2020.
“We are really focalizing directly on the cortex,” Kouider told VentureBeat. “We decode neural activity in the cortex noninvasively. And the goal is to reach real-time interaction by using just the brain directly.”
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guest · Feb 10, 2020

Elon Musk Tweets About Upcoming Awesome Neuralink Update
February 5, 2020
https://www.techshout.com/science/2020/05/elon-musk-tweets-about-upcoming-awesome-neuralink-update/

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has promised an “awesome’ update to the brain-computer interface technology being built by his side startup Neuralink.

To help paralyzed people control devices and empower people with brain disorders, Neuralink last year unveiled tiny brain “threads” in a chip that is long-lasting, usable at home and has the potential to replace cumbersome devices currently used as brain-machine interfaces.
On a Twitter thread from noted tech investor Cathie Wood, Musk said on Sunday the technology could be tested in a human patient with brain or spinal cord injuries as early as this year, CNET reported on Tuesday.

“The profound impact of high bandwidth, high precision neural interfaces is underappreciated. Neuralink may have this in a human as soon as this year,” Musk tweeted.
The chip which will be wireless in the future can read, transmit high-volume data and amplify signals from the brain.
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guest · Apr 1, 2020

Facebook's mind-reading plans just took another step forward
A team of researchers sponsored by the social media giant has reached a new milestone
April 1, 2020
https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebooks-mind-reading-plans-just-took-another-step-forward/

Facebook Reality Labs, the social media platform's department dedicated to "inventing the future" – or, more prosaically, to developing AR and VR headsets – has hailed a new development in brain-computer interface (BCI) research, which the tech company is determined to put to good use.

Researchers from UC San Francisco (UCSF), who are sponsored and supported by Facebook, have effectively set a new benchmark for decoding speech directly from brain activity.
Multiple studies have already succeeded [...] but the accuracy and speed of the decoding process are still pretty low; UCSF's researchers said that error rates average 60% for 100-words vocabularies.

Using advanced machine learning for speech recognition and language translation, however, the team managed to translate neural activity into English sentences with an error rate of only 3% for vocabularies of up to 300 words.

"New research helps illuminate the path forward in our mission to develop a non-invasive silent speech interface for the next computing platform," said the social media platform as it announced the new results from UCSF.
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Imagining a new interface: Hands-free communication without saying a word

UPDATE: March 30, 2020: Today in Nature Neuroscience, UCSF researchers Joseph Makin, David Moses, and Eddie Chang published the results of a recent study that set a new benchmark for decoding speech directly from brain activity.
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guest · May 9, 2020

Elon Musk: Neuralink Will Do Human Brain Implant in “Less Than a Year”
May 7, 2020
https://futurism.com/elon-musk-neuralink-human-brain-implant

For the second time in two years, entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk sat down with podcaster Joe Rogan to chat about the future of AI and its role in the symbiosis of man and machine.

In their conversation, Musk revealed that the secretive brain stimulation link startup Neuralink, which he co-founded, is close to starting testing in actual humans.

“We’re not testing people yet, but I think it won’t be too long,” Musk told Rogan. “We may be able to implant a neural link in less than a year in a person I think.”
The news comes after Musk teased in February that the brain-computer interface startup was working on an “awesome” new version.
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guest · Jul 9, 2020

Elon Musk says a Neuralink update is coming in August
July 9, 2020
https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-says-a-neuralink-update-is-coming-in-august/

On Twitter Thursday, Musk said to expect a progress update on Neuralink, his startup which is trying to create a link between brains and computers, on Aug. 28. The aim of the device is to help those with brain and spinal cord injuries, or congenital defects.

In July 2019, Musk said the company had tried the device on a monkey and the monkey had been able to control a computer with its brain. He also said he'd hoped to have it in a human patient by the end of the year.
Neuralink did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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guest · Jul 21, 2020

Elon Musk’s Neuralink Plans To Stream Music Directly In Your Head
July 21, 2020
https://fossbytes.com/elon-musks-neuralink-plans-to-stream-music-directly-in-your-head/

We have already learned that Elon Musk’s innovative startup Neuralink is working on creating a chip that can serve as a brain-computer interface. Now the SpaceX founder has revealed one more ability of the technology — and that is streaming music directly in your head.

This means that if Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implant succeeds, earphones could become ancient history at one point in the future. Musk confirmed the news on Twitter when a computer scientist, Austin Howard, asked if Neuralink’s brain-implant will be able to stream music directly into one’s brain.
In further tweets, Musk also said that Neuralink “could help control hormone levels and use them to our advantage (enhanced abilities and reasoning, anxiety relief, etc.).”
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guest · Aug 26, 2020

Elon Musk to demonstrate a working Neuralink device during live webcast
A high bandwidth brain-machine interface
August 26, 2020
https://www.techspot.com/news/86516-elon-musk-demonstrate-working-neuralink-device-during-live.html

Bottom line: Current methods of communicating with or via technology, like typing on a smartphone, are rather slow at around 10 bits per second. Computers, on the other hand, can exchange more than a trillion bits of data per second. Musk believes that if we are to remain a dominant race, we must address this communications bottleneck.

Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk has confirmed plans to share more information regarding his neurotechnology company Neuralink Corporation on Friday.
Founded in the summer of 2016, Neuralink is actively developing implantable brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that will greatly expedite the flow of information between computers and our brains.
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Back in February, Musk said the potential is truly transformational for restoring brain and motor functions.

Will show neurons firing in real-time on August 28th. The matrix in the matrix.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2020
Imagine being paralyzed for years and suddenly being able to control a computer with your mind, or having struggled with addiction or depression, only to have Neuralink retrain the part of the brain responsible for causing the issues and curing you.
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Live webcast of working @Neuralink device
Friday 3pm Pacific https://t.co/PouLbrGzFU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2020
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xxJackxx · Aug 28, 2020

...only to have Neuralink retrain the part of the brain responsible for causing the issues..
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This is probably thee worst thing that will ever happen to humanity. But I guess they will be able to "retrain" me to think otherwise. I hope this life is over before they are actually able to do such things.

Trooper · Aug 28, 2020

Yeah I want no part of this at all. Mark of the beast type stuff.

stapp · Aug 29, 2020

Neuralink: Elon Musk unveils pig with chip in its brain

Elon Musk has unveiled a pig called Gertrude with a coin-sized computer chip in her brain to demonstrate his ambitious plans to create a working brain-to-machine interface.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53956683

guest · Aug 29, 2020

Musk says that Neuralink implants are close to ready for human testing
August 29, 2020
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...mplants-are-close-to-ready-for-human-testing/

On Friday, Elon Musk gave an update on what's probably his third-most prominent company: Neuralink.
With this year's update, little has changed about the overall plan, but plenty of little details have been tweaked in the intervening 12 months.

For now, rather than attempting to target anything deep in the brain, implants will only target things near the surface of the cerebral cortex, the outermost layer at the front of the brain.
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But the central feature is still Neuralink's custom chip designed to identify and transmit patterns of neural activity. Individual neurons, which the electrodes will be listening in on, communicate by firing off a series of what are called "spikes"—short bursts of electrical activity that stand out from the background noise.
Next stop: humans?
As he did last year, Musk said that the goal of the presentation was to recruit good people to work at Neuralink, which is currently at roughly 100 employees. But he definitely dropped some hints that things are getting closer to when he would like to start on the marketing.

To begin with, he mentioned that Neuralink had gotten a Breakthrough Device designation from the Food and Drug Agency, which handles medical-implant approval
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guest · Dec 12, 2020

mood said: ↑

NextMind is building a real-time brain computer interface, unveils Dev Kit for $399
January 5, 2020
https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/05/...n-computer-interface-unveils-dev-kit-for-399/
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NextMind ships its real-time brain computer interface Dev Kit for $399
December 7, 2020
https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/07/nextmind-real-time-brain-computer-interface-dev-kit/

NextMind has started shipping its real-time brain computer interface Dev Kit for $399. The device translates brain signals into digital commands, allowing you to control computers, AR/VR headsets, and IoT devices (lights, TVs, music, games, and so on) with your visual attention.

Paris-based NextMind is part of a growing number of startups building neural interfaces that rely on machine learning algorithms. There are invasive devices like the one from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which in August revealed a prototype showing readings from a pig’s brain using a coin-shaped device implanted under the skull. There are also noninvasive devices like the electromyography wristband that translates neuromuscular signals into machine-interpretable commands from Ctrl-labs, which Facebook acquired in September 2019.
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The company shipped “hundreds” of Dev Kits in November after producing its first thousand units. Another thousand units are set to be produced next month.
Hands on with NextMind’s Dev Kit [...]
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NextMind: Time to Open Your NextMind: DevKit for World’s First Real-Time Brain-Sensing Wearable Starts Shipping

stapp · Sep 21, 2023

Musk’s Neuralink seeks volunteers for brain implants—who’s in?

After years of delays, regulatory rejections, and allegations of animal abuse, Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, is now recruiting its first human volunteers to have an experimental robot implant an experimental device directly into their brains.
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Neuralink says it aims to enroll people with quadriplegia due to a spinal cord injury or ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Volunteers will have a wireless brain-computer interface implant, dubbed N1, surgically embedded into their brains by the company's experimental surgical robot, R1.
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https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/09/musks-neuralink-seeks-volunteers-for-brain-implants-whos-in/

Daveski17 · Sep 21, 2023

An advertising bot in every brain? Google would love that.

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