Artificial Intelligence is scary! And connecting your brain to an AI
is even scarier. It has revolutionary advantages if used carefully,
but it’s scary! This is curtly, what Elon Musk’s Neuralink is.
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Well now, getting back to the topic… Before getting into Neuralink, let us
first address why AI is considered dangerous? The possibility that a computer can rise up to
a level so intrinsically intelligent that it would be able to make its own decisions
is just beyond human understanding. A decade or two ago, the idea of an autonomous
computer able to make independent decisions based on inductive and deductive reasoning,
was nothing more than a Science Fiction movie plot. But here we are
in year 2021 and AI has become one of the most imminent dangers to humanity and for some, even
an agent of extinction of humanity as we know it. The milder danger is that if Machines, through AI
become better than humans at doing all kinds of tasks, at lower costs and with better efficiency,
what would remain for humans to do? And the kind of socio-economic
rifts which would arise as a result. A more drastic danger is that a Super AI,
which surpasses human intelligence could be created, which would eventually subjugate
humanity, like humanity has subjugated all other life on this planet Earth.
This can happen when someone goes too far with AI and tries to develop an Artificial Neural Network,
just like our brain. An ANN is basically an artificial simulation of how our brain
processes and analyzes information and solves problems. In an ANN,
one inputs all kinds of Information available in the form of internet and databases –or in short,
the Big data, and feeds it an self-learning program of making sense of all the information it
has been fed by looking for patterns and meanings, carry out actions and solve problems based on its
own calculations and conclusions, and try to learn from its previous mistakes – just like how a human
brain evolves, the ANN evolves. Now, why AI has suddenly
become a dire and imminent danger? Well because, unlike human brain, an ANN
has much higher processing speed, and way too much information to rely on –these two things combined,
means that if such a comprehensive humanoid program is ever made set free to process, it would
only be a matter of couple of years or maybe even months before it might become fully conscious,
and surpass human intelligence, and take over! The mere theoretical possibility of such a future
is appalling. **YOU CAN SKIP
THE HIGHLIGHTED PART IF FELT IRRELEVENT** In 2016, a Challenge match of a game called
‘Go’ was held in Seoul between the 16 times World Champion of Go –33 years old Lee Sedol
from South Korea and 2 years old computer AI program called Deepmind developed by Google.
If you do not know, Go is acclaimed as one of the most difficult abstract
strategy board games in the world. In the 5 rounds match between an expert
human and AlphaGo, human lost by 1 to 4. This demonstration was especially shocking,
because, up until this point, no one ever admitted that a computer
could beat human in self-reasoning. Elon Musk, the biggest proponent of
technological advancement and automation, himself has openly voiced his concerns and
fears about the dangers that an un-controlled and un-monitored AI advancement would bring.
Such concerns, coming from someone who has been leading AI research in his company called OpenAI,
which is one of the world’s top AI R&D projects, is truly a shocker!
The Neuralink To solve this problem,
or maybe we should say: to pre-empt this danger, Elon Musk has come up with a solution.
The main idea being that human intelligence is limited due to the physical constraints we face.
Our brains have limited memory capacity, incomparably low bandwidth for input and output
of information, and an inherent vulnerability to permanent damage, and un-treatable brain diseases.
All of these things make human brain inferior to an AI which has no physical constraints, can have
as bigger bandwidth as needed, and an unmistakable information storage and retrieving capacity.
Elon Musk suggests a ‘Symbiosis’ between a human brain and AI –making an integrated Cyborg.
If we take a step back and look at the current world, we are already to a certain extent become
a cyborg. Our Mobile phones, computerized watches, PCs, the Internet of Things,
AI personal assistants like Siri or Alexa: all of these things have become a part of us.
Each of these things assists us in remembering information, and carryout daily life routine.
Losing any of these things would become practically paralyzing for our everyday life.
To make this interaction between computers and brain seamless, and subsequently faster,
The next level in this journey is the Nueuralink Chip.
The Neuralink Chip Defined as ‘’a Fitbit in your skull,
with tiny wires’’, by Elon on the Neuralink Chip demonstration event held, back in August 2020,
the Neuralink chip is an artificial interface between our brain and computers.
Titled as ‘’The Link’’, the ultimate goal of this technology is to neutralize the threat of AI
by achieving a Super Human Cognition. But for now, the Link Version 0.9,
is expected to help cure chronic brain diseases like epilepsy, amnesia, paralysis, deafness
and blindness by connecting the device to the concerned areas of brain related to the illness.
The brain function is based on electric impulses, or spikes which travel through
the Neural networks in our body. Problems like Paralysis arise when certain nerves or circuits
are damaged and become unable to maintain sensory and motor activity. Other problems like blindness
is caused by a defect in neurons which either control the activity of eye tissue, or relay
information between eye and the visual cortex, or in the visual cortex. The Neura-linking process
is much like replacing the broken or faulty brain circuits which are causing the problem,
and sending and receiving signals artificially. At the Neuralink demonstration event,
the head Neurosurgeon of Neuralink Matthew McDougall announced that the ‘’first stage
of medical trials of Neuralink will be aimed at treating Paraplegia’’.
There are also other prospects like telepathy, Bluetooth connection of your brain with your
mobile phone and other computers or Neuralink devices near you –making you a part of IOT,
and saving and replaying memories – stated by Elon in the August demonstration – which
he has saved for a longer run. So how does this Chip going to work?
Link V0.9 Titled as Link V0.9, it is a circular 23mm
by 8mm micro-chip, which is to be implanted in human skull surgically, and connected to the brain
through tiny, microscopic threads, or electrodes which are 120 times thinner than a human hair.
As microscopic precision is vital for such an implant, the procedure is carried out by
a surgical robot. The procedure takes less than an hour to finish, and you won’t need
general anesthesia for it. Post-surgery, you can just get up and walk out… it’s that simple.
A chip implanted pig was used to demonstrate the functioning of the chip, as it showed
the real time neural activity inside its brain on a screen in the form of spikes,
and actually predicted its movements as well. Nuerualink has now started working on the Chip’s
first human trials, and are expected to commence by the end of this year
–according to a recent tweet by Elon Musk. Among the ongoing trials of Nueralink,
the chip was implanted into a monkey’s brain, which enabled it to play a video game,
solely through its mind—claimed by Elon. Expected Limitations of This Technology
The fact that we do not understand both: the brain, its activity, and the code which it
uses to relay information, as well as how AI actually works itself out once it is fed with
Data and Algorithm, and how it makes decisions. Which pertains that at some point, ability to
manipulate brain function would be hindered due to the fact that we do not inherently understand how
it works, as to how electric signals are coded and decoded, and what is that code in the first place.
Just like we can use our knowledge about laws of physics to improve technology,
but cannot manipulate them to change the very fabric of nature to meet our desires.
Nevertheless, we do not know what future has in store for us…
Maybe technology gets advanced to such a level that we could understand
the brain and decipher its codes. Threats posed by Nueralink—the concept
While we are at it, let us not avoid the darker possibilities connected to such technologies.
Dangers like brain hacking, and weaponization of such technologies cannot be refuted.
What if an implanted chip catches a virus or bug, or a glitch occurs? Won’t that
damage the brain tissue it is connected with? Mind Control would be a super-power come true,
for some ambitious people in that sense. If this phenomenon becomes popular and
masses adopt it, maybe there would be someone who could entertain the
possibility of subjugating entire populations. The possibilities are countless, and scary!
Conclusion Technological
progress is inevitable. But monitoring and control over the direction it takes in crucial.
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