The Tesla founder isn’t the only one looking to this path, other companies are also researching cybernetic augments for the human mind
Last week, Elon Musk made an announcement to the world, that he would be providing updates on his neural lace project in February. This particular piece of technology is the iconic entrepreneur’s attempt at improving the capability of the human mind with cybernetic augmentation.
In the race to perfect neural networks, Artificial Intelligence systems have already surpassed humans in many ways. They can beat us at complex games like poker and Go, identify disease markers more accurately than humans, drive our cars better than we do, and in some cases even teach other AI. Thanks to these developments, a few tech leaders have been worried about humanity’s place in a machine-driven world, and the potential catastrophic fallout that could result from a rogue AI.
In addition to coming together with the likes of Stephen Hawking and Steve Wozniak to caution the tech industry to be careful when meddling with AI development, Musk also has an idea that would give humanity to edge. His neural lace project seeks to augment the human mind by combining it with artificially intelligent systems, forming a hybrid that would have the processing power of AI as well as the moral and ethical reasoning of a human.
The neural lace is a bionic device that would be embedded into the brain and grow over time, with its primary function being to optimise mental output through a brain-computer interface. Theoretically, with this in your head, you’d be able to access the Internet without the need for an external smart device, and even process complex calculations as fast as a supercomputer.
Musk himself is confident of the project’s eventual success, saying it could bring humans on par with AI. And though he’s given out only minor teases regarding the details before, it seems he’s finally ready to spill a few more secrets.
And yet, The Tesla and SpaceX founder isn’t the only one working to fuse humans with AI. In October last year Braintree founder Bryan Johnson announced a $100 million investment into a similar device. The aim of his neuroprosthesis is, similarly, to unlock the full power of the human mind. In addition to that, his company Kernel wants to design a device capable of combating the negative effects of neurodegenerative diseases. If the project succeeds, Johnson’s device could theoretically negate the loss of neurons from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s by supplementing them with processing power of its own.
Experts also believe this particular research field could one day lead to us being able to code our neural programming, effectively making it possible to hard-code behaviours into human minds. While developments of that sort may be far down the line, it’s all based on the way our brain cells work and therefore not implausible. Hopefully, AI researchers and legislators can pin down the sort of regulations required to be in place before we reach that point.
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 "Artificial Intelligence (AI), Elon Musk, SpaceX, Tesla, Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak, neural network")
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