A new era of communication — the power and vulnerability of your thoughts
Regina Dugan, who leads Facebook’s secretive building 8, took the stage at Facebook’s annual F8 Developer conference in April 2017 and asked: “So what if you could type directly from your brain?” What she meant really was the ability to type without moving a muscle. Just by thinking. Let that sink in.
The Technological revolution started in the second half of the 20th century but the latest developments never fail to amaze me. There are always novel ideas surfacing that are unheard of. The technology behind what Regina Dugan was talking about can decode and translate brain signals (neural activity) into words and sentences. This area of research is known as brain-computer interface (BCI) research. While BCI research began in 2004 with the use of Electrocorticography (ECoG), there were only a handful of labs around the world tackling the problem at the time. ECoG is a type of electrophysiological monitoring wherein electrodes are surgically implanted on the brain and they record electrical activity from the cerebral cortex.
While multiple studies in this area have gained some success, the average error rate has historically been 60% for 100-word vocabularies, limiting the current state of the technology to finite number of applications. We have however had real people use BCI technologies to feed themselves, hold the hand of a loved one, and even fly a jet simulator.
Within its secretive building 8, Facebook has a department dedicated to inventing the future, Facebook reality labs, that first announced its foray into BCI in 2017. It is sponsoring researchers from UCSF (UC San Francisco) to conduct research in this rather unexploited territory. The magnitude of funding behind this initiative remains undisclosed, but during the launch in 2017, it quoted to have 60 people on this team.
In April 2020, the UCSF team of researchers reportedly achieved an error rate of only 3% for vocabularies up to 300 words, a dramatic improvement from the average.
One day, albeit several years into the future, the researchers hope to take this silent-speech system to a real-time decoding speed of 100 words per minute (about 2–3 times faster than we type on smartphones today) with a 1,000-word vocabulary and word error rate of less than 17%.
While this research is being conducted by using the invasive ECoG, Facebook eventually wants to transition this into a technology that is non-invasive and can seamlessly blend into its headset. It plans to explore optical imaging to make it non-invasive and envisions the headset would allow users to type by simply imagining themselves talking.
Non-invasive BCI has already made advances, as indicated in June 2019 by a team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, who developed the first-ever successful mind-controlled robotic arm. Until then, all successful BCIs for robotic arm control had been invasive, demanding substantial medical expertise and cost. This team used electroencephalography (EEG), similar to ECoG, but the only difference being that the electrodes are placed along the scalp, rather than on the brain. While the non-invasive method currently ranks lower on the efficacy, it’s a start.
Beyond neurorobotics, BCI offers a critical use case in aiding individuals who are unable to communicate due to injury, movement disorders, stroke, paralysis or other neurological disorders. Currently available technology such as letter by letter typing, allows limited communication at a delivery at a rate of 8 words per minute. BCI could significantly advance the quality of life for millions of such people.
An epileptic patient in a 2017 BCI study in Australia, was warned before the onset of her seizure so she could take medication beforehand to ward it off. For her, the device provided her with a new life -
When the company that implanted the device went bankrupt and needed to remove the implanted device, she resisted but had to let go. She felt she had lost herself.
Unquestionably, this mind-reading technology is bound to raise concerns about privacy. We’ve gone from computers and smartphones to finally the last sacred private haven — our brains.
Nita Farahany, a professor at Duke University who specializes in neuro-ethics said, “To me the brain is the one safe place for freedom of thought, of fantasies, and for dissent. We’re getting close to crossing the final frontier of privacy in the absence of any protections whatsoever.” Areas like neurogaming and neuromarketing are already becoming early beneficiaries of this technology. Neuromarketing includes the direct use of brain imaging, scanning, or other brain activity measurement technology to measure a subject’s response to specific products, packaging, advertising, or other marketing elements.
Regina Dugan, the head of Facebook’s secretive building 8 was reported to have clarified the applications during the launch in 2017 -
‘To be clear, we are not talking about decoding your random thoughts,
You take many photos, you choose to share some of them.
Similarly, you have many thoughts, you choose to share some of them’
In September 2019, Facebook acquired a mind-reading tech startup, CTRL-Labs, for $1 billion. CTRL-Labs makes a wristband that is said to decode electrical signals from your brain. Public sentiment was extremely negative with regards to what this could mean for privacy.
Neuro-ethicist, Marcello Ienca, published a paper in 2017 outlining 4 specific ‘neurorights’. These included the rights to 1) cognitive liberty, 2) mental privacy, 3) mental integrity and 4) psychological continuity.
Facebook is not the only tech behemoth in the BCI space. Neuralink, started by Elon Musk, is working on invasive BCI, catered towards clinical application.
It has built small and flexible electrode threads that are implanted into the brain. It claims that its approach will allow for high packaging density and scalability, making the technology clinically relevant.
Detailed information can be found in the launch video.
Other companies in this space include Kernel, Neurable, Emotiv, Neurosky, BrainCo, MindMaze, Paradromics.
Humans have ample evidence to note that with any new technology, there are always benefits and drawbacks. BCI’s benefits are enormous, and its exploitation can be kept in check by proactive regulation and engagement of neuro-ethicists. But even today privacy laws either do not exist or are not enforced up to a satisfactory level. With the power and vulnerability of our thoughts, soon enough and gradually, humans will perhaps not be left with any choice but to shrink their privacy frontiers in return for the life advancement this technology offers.
#CBSDigitalLiteracy
