Neuralink: thinking about AI, neurotechnology and medical applications.

Neuralink, founded in 2016 by Elon Musk, is a neurotechnology company who's focus is developing implantable brain–machine interfaces (BMIs). [1] In 2016 at a (Re)code conference Musk discussed the concept of AI 's or digital technologies subjugation of humanity, often called technological singularity, and his stance on techno-human symbiosis or transhumanism.

Musk's position on the AI versus humanity is that not all Ai futures are benign and that if we do create a digital super intelligence that exceeds us in everyway and by a lot that it be benign. [2] He reference his non-profit company OpenAI, which was created to grant accessibility of AI to the general public. [3] Musk believes the power of AI shouldn't be he reserved to an elite few and utilised to created a world that we don't want. [4] Musk notes that although singularity makes predicting the future difficult, the exclusivity of AI could foreshadow despotism and dictatorship (controlled by AI or those who control AI).[5] The distribution of AI also ensures that a larger collective of individuals who have AI agency could overcome an entity or group of people who could try and create a And so, making AI accessibility decreases the probability of an undesirable future and increases the probability of a positive one. [6] I'm interested in how Musk notes that AI could be a thing that is symbolic for or denotes the intention and ideologies of its creators. That then AI and digital technologies aren't necessarily the problem but rather the society or entity that creates them are - or could be .

Returning to the concept of benign AI & innovation, Musk notes that even if super intelligence were benign humans would still be so inferior to it that it would create a relationship similar to the human, house pet dynamic. [7] Musk's presents a solution to AI's intelligence superiority over humanity could be symbiosis or integration - to be and embrace tanshuman or cyborgs. [8] Musk notes we are already cyborgs. Human's already have digital or partial versions of themselves online via emails, social media and profiles.[9] Technology allows us to have certain "superpowers" that were previously inconconvieable only 20 - 30 years ago.[10] Digital technology allows us to research any question and have an answer without having to go to a library, and we can video conference and talk with others across the globe ad you can communicate with millions of people instantly. [11] The greatest boundary humans face versus AI is input and output (IO), particularly output. [12] Musk references you can only move as fast as your fingers will let you, which he notes is "ridiculously slow. " [13] Humans input is significantly better due the high bandwidth visual interface within the brain and the eyes can take in a lot of data. [14] So, Musk's main interest in utilising digital intelligence technology in symbiosis with the human anatomy is to equalise or illuminate the constraints of corporeal IO. In being, and embracing, being cyborgs AI and digital technologies "otherness" is decreased. This idea then materialises as a direct cortical interface which Musk calls a neural lace. Which could interact with the brain's cortical neurons and could be inserted via arteries or veins such as the jugular. [15] The circulatory system acts pathways to all neurons within the human body as neurons are high energy user and require hight blood flow. [16]

In 2016, Musk didn't reference which company was working on the neural lace, but in hindsight it is easy to delineate this was Neuralink. In 2020, Neuralink released a live stream video of a progress update on their chip, which references a product release / demonstration / launch of Tesla and Apple, which aid to show their current work and recruit new employees who specialised in mechanical engineers, robotic engineers, electronic engineers and software engineers and chip designers. [17]

The human brain has 86 million neurons which send and receive information. [18] The neutron can be divided into three distinct parts: the dendrite which receives signals, the soma which computes signals and the axon which sends signals. [19] Connections between the axon and dendrite called synapses allow the brain's neurons to send and receive electric signals. [20]

"Action potentials cause synapses to release neurotransmitters." [21] Neurotransmitters are chemical substance messengers which transmit signals from a neuron across the synapse to a target cell. "These small molecules bind to receptors on dendrites, opening channels that cause current to flow across the neuron’s membrane. When a neuron receives the ‘right’ combination of spatiotemporal synaptic input, it initiates an action potentials or voltage 'spikes.' ” [22]

Neuralink places electrodes near neurons to detect action potentials, allowing Neuralink to collect information represented by cells for decoding. [23] Specially, Neuralink focuses on the movement areas of the brain called the motor cortices located in the the frontal lobe. [24] [25] The pre, supplementary and primary motor cortices are theorised to have distinct purposes;

The premotor cortex is theorised to help regulate posture by dictating an optimal position to the motor cortex for any given movement. While the supplementary motor area influences the planning and initiation of movements on the basis of past experience. The mere anticipation of a movement triggers neural transmissions in the supplementary motor area. [26]

In these movement- related areas of the human brain, neurons then represent intended movements.

Neuralink notes that neural activity can currenlty be monitored from outside the head using non-invasive techniques such as EEG.[27] With these techniques, each channel records the summed activity of millions of neurons, which means the details become blurred, faded or conflate.[28] Neuralink illustrates this via the analogy of experiencing a sports event through a microphone external of the stadium, "From the roars or groans of the crowd you can tell when something good or bad happens to the home team, but you'll have a hard time distinguishing whether they scored or made a great defensive play. And you certainly wouldn’t be able to hear what individual people were saying about the game." [29] Essentially, EEGs collect general indications or high- level information but cannot pinpoint details or specific origins. [30] Neuralink argues access to such fine-scale information can only be achieved through close proximity to the source of the signal: neurons within the brain.[31] Specifically to Neuralink's endeavours of allowing paralysis to use a computers or phones solely with their brain activity via recording action potentials from neurons via electrodes planted inside the brain.

In contrast to previous discussions in 2016, Neuralink's 2020 link prototype's surgical installation would require minor brain surgery. [32] Though it would not require general anaesthesia, the procedure will still require a coin size piece of skull to be removed, and the link device takes it place. [33] Replacing a piece of skull with alternative material is a concept that is already actively used in the medical field , such as a 3-D printed skull implant given to a women in Switzerland in 2014. The link it secured using medical superglue which is common in current incision closing procedures. The full surgery would be complete by an automated robot. [34] The when inserting the electrodes, the robot images the brain the ensuring it hits not veins or arteries ensuring no bleeding and no neural damage occurs. [35]

One of the notable issues Neuralink is facing is the material science of the electrodes and their long term stability and effacy.[36] Essentially, finding or designing a material that can withstand the corrosive environment of the brain for a long time, but still maintain their purpose of sense and generating electrical signals. [37] This could be solved by an insulating layer of silicone-carbide that protects the metal material but is thin enough to still sense electrical signals but is still under experimentation at Neuralink. [38] The link devices are tested in a test chamber where it is exposed to elements such as chemical, pressure and mechanical shock and vibrations it would experience in the human body. [39]

Additionally, Neuralink notes signal quality diminishes in congested environments such as mass gatherings like concerts

are radio frequencies to scale to million of electrodes. [40] In regards to the electromagnetic , it is important to co-exist with existing systems and adhere to guideline set out by FDA. [41]

Data from the brain will be encrypted and authenticated to ensure privacy and security.[42] Security and privacy is considered in the design of the link from chip to source code ensuring that each stage embeds it as part of he design. [43] Isolating sensitive or security weak components at the hardware level means that the I/O from the brain is protected from and minimises any attacks. This is also reinforced by external penetration testing. [44]

In reference to animal testing, Neuralink has a dedicated animal care programme that reinforces a system where the test animal's volunteer and participate in the programme with non negative repercussions if they opt out. [45] The test animals are led by positive reenforcement - frequently food. [46] The animals are housed in ways that allow them to express species specific behaviours. [47]

In 2021, Neuralink released a video with a nine year old Macaque monkey Pager", who has two neural inks implanted in his brain, playing video games. [48] Neuralink's are paired to a iPhone. The links record from more than 2000 electrodes implanted in the motor cortex that coordinate hand and arm movements. [49] Neurons in this region modulate their activity with intended hand movement - specific neutrons become more active or inactive dependant on where the hand or arm is moved. By recording neurons and feeding their acting into a decoder system, predict intended hand movements in real time. [50] The decoder is calibrated by recording neural activity as Pager plays the video game using the joy stick to move a cursor to targets on the screen. [51] Firing rates from neutron are wireless streamed to a laptop, the decoder is calibrated using this data - Mathematically modelling the patterns in relationship between neural activity and the joystick movements they produce. [52] Subsequently, the output from the decoder is then used to move the cursor rather than the joystick. Pager, then controls the moment of the cursor not using a joystick, but via decoded neural activity. [53] In people with paralysis, Neuralink's target recipients, the decoder would be calibrated by imagined hand movements to move the joystick. [54]

It arises question around wether a person should be "fixed." Fixed denotes something or someone is "broken", "damaged" or "defective". What or who decides when something is "broken" - when it doesn't adhere to societal norms? When it isn't "typical" or "normal.In Neuralink's 2021 product demonstration, Musk discusses two variation of the prototypes and when discussing the first which hold great similarities to current cochleae implants for hearing impaired people that when wearing it, " you wouldn't still look totally normal you would still have something behind your ear." [55] " I think it's also presumptuous to assume people want to be cured, a more progressive way is to consider device such as neural inks are merely contemporary medical aids - which are optional. Do people really need to "look normal" or be "fixed" or "cured", or do these developments make a society more inclusive by creating technologies that aid and help people with their existing conditions in everyday life that allows disabled people to function at a greater level - perhaps equally to able bodied counterparts. Neuralink's devices could present a choice or options to be "higher functioning" or lead independent lives which weren't wasn't an option before.

It is important to note clinical trials with humans have not yet occurred. [55] Therefore, the efficacy, safety and consequence (beneficial or detrimental) have no been established in human subjects and is speculative. Neuralink are currently preposing a small clinical trial, which would contain a low sample of subjects who suffer from tetra or quadriplegia. [56] Neuralink also expresses that link could be used in the future to grant full mobility, retain memory - main data storage, reduce or irradiate pain, telepathy - or inner visual communication / sharing, cure blindness and more. [57] These claims are even more speculative that their current experiments but introducing exciting possibility of our agency of biologic could be radically changed by technological integration or symbiosis.

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Tangential notes & thoughts

"Besides the frontal cortex, the posterior parietal cortex clearly plays a role in voluntary movements, by assessing the

context in which they are being made. The parietal cortex receives somatosensory, proprioreceptive, and visual inputs,

then uses them to determine such things as the positions of the body and the target in space. It thereby produces

internal models of the movement to be made, prior to the involvement of the premotor and motor cortices. "

[Dubuc, Bruno, THE MOTOR CORTEX: Advanced, Canadian Institutes of Health Research: Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_06/d_06_cr/d_06_cr_mou/d_06_cr_mou.html ]

What is interesting about this excerpt, from THE MOTOR CORTEX: Advanced, is how it denotes that the brain uses inner visualisation or "models of movement" to speculative or prothesis how and movement could be carried out via physical actions of the human body. It utilises current information from the "somatosensory, proprioreceptive, and visual inputs" , and prior information from the supplementary motor area. I think its interesting to think about how speculation and planning aren't just actions or methods used by humans to presuppose creation and trajectories of things and outcomes. But, is also inherently built into the human brain's circuit, processes and incites excitatory actions.

https://neuralink.com/approach/ - "The Neuralink app would allow you to control your iOS device, keyboard and mouse directly with the activity of your brain, just by thinking about it." "With a bluetooth connection, you would control any mouse or keyboard, and experience reality — unmediated and in high fidelity."

Looking at diagrams of the human brains connection to circuit boards.

Musk talks about spinal injury / severe as essentially cut wires. electrical spikes from energy of neurons - reference to the body, machine conversation or Descartes.

Steven Hawking - optical VA tools and computer device for communication.

Technology becoming biology

Reference list

[1] - [16] Musk, Elon. "Elon Musk: Full interview: Code Conference 2016". Interview by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. Recode, 2016. Published June 3, 2016. Video with audio, 1:24:14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsixsRI-Sz4&t=3710s

[17] - [25] Neuralink. "Science." Accessed May 26th, 2021. https://neuralink.com/science/

[26] Dubuc, Bruno. "The Motor Cortex: Advanced, Canadian Institutes of Health Research: Institute of Neurosciences." Mental Health and Addiction, https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_06/d_06_cr/d_06_cr_mou/d_06_cr_mou.html

[27] - [31] "Science," Neuralink, accessed May 26th 2021, https://neuralink.com/science/

[32] - [47] Neuralink. " Neuralink Progress Update, Summer 2020." YouTube Video originally streamed live. 1:13:30. 29 August, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvmgjBL74w

[48] - [53] Neuralink. "Monkey MindPong." YouTube Video. 3:28. April 9, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCul1sp4hQ

[54] - [57] Neuralink. " Neuralink Progress Update, Summer 2020." YouTube Video originally streamed live. 1:13:30. 29 August, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvmgjBL74w

Further References

Technological singularity - https://www.explainingthefuture.com/singularity.html

https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/

Previous electrode implant studies - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2080671-rats-learn-to-sense-infrared-in-hours-thanks-to-brain-implants/. .