Implanting AI chips in the brain can make you insane

Last month, Elon Musk’s Neuralink technology company revealed that it plans to develop brain reading technology in the next few years. One of the company’s goals is to be able to implant microchip devices into the brains of people with disabilities, allowing them to control smartphones and computers.

Although technology that seems to come out of this Black Mirror movie might hold the power with the potential to completely change the lives of people with disabilities, but according to psychologist Susan Schneider, it is not. must be a great idea as we think.

Musk – who is also the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX – expects to make AI transplantation into the human brain safe and popular like laser eye surgery. But how will it work? Musk said this implant chip will record the information generated by neurons in our brain.

These tiny microprocessors will connect to the brain through “roads” with a thinness several times smaller than a human hair (about 4-6 micrometers across). The sensors inside them fill the surface of your skull and then relay information to a tiny computer that you wear on your ear, called “The Link”. After completing the installation process, your brain can connect to the iPhone via an accompanying application – what a promising future but also scary.

In a talk with the Financial Times, Schneider said that Musk’s project could be likened to ” suicide for the human mind “. Although Schneider said that brain intelligence can be combined with a chip, “there will come a time when you will end your life …”, and Schneider calls it “the brain is squeezed masterpiece “.

According to Schneider, the improvements that AI brings can be used to complement neural activities, but if they grow to the level of replacing normal functioning nerve tissue, then at some point They will put an end to your life.

Elon Musk describes Neuralink

“The concern (human brain) merges with the AI, in a more realistic perspective than what Musk envisions, is that the human brain will gradually stagnate or be completely destroyed. Moreover, the self’s ego the body can depend on the brain and if the existence of the self over time requires some continuity in our lives – a continuum of memory and personality traits – the A radical change can disrupt the necessary continuity, “ said Schneider.

” There is also a philosophical issue: what is the nature of self or mind? If the mind is just a brain, then fully integrating with AI will not gain anything. I think the supporters The unified mind – the machine thinks that our ego is just like a software program. “

Although Schneider was skeptical about Musk’s plans to turn humans into cyborgs, she added that replacing parts of the brain with a few chips ” would not have a devastating effect”. However, according to the philosopher Derek Parfit, it is unclear how much replacement is enough? ” Will we replace 15% of the nervous system? Or 75%? Which option seems to be self-sufficient” – Schneider said.

Musk is not the only one who wants to bring radical reforms to the human brain in the future. Ray Kurzweil, the futurist and technical director at Google, said he expects we will be able to back up the brain to the cloud by 2045 – and that’s what will make us immortal.

But Schneider points out that we should not put all our faith in uniting humans with AI. Instead, more research needs to be done around the capabilities and consequences that this unified technology brings to us.

Reference: TheNextWeb