Connecting the brain with everyday technologies such as the cell phone for goals such as a blind person being able to see images may sound like science fiction, but it is not. It is ongoing research that in just a decade could have practical use in everyday life.
At least that is what one of the leading neuroscientists in this field of research predicts, Indian Rajesh Rao, 56, co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology at the American University of Washington.
The scientist participated this week in the V International Conference on Active Inference (IWAI), held in Madrid.
Researchers who champion the study of how the biological intelligence of the brain works met there to, among other things, develop artificial intelligence (AI) more similar to humans, instead of that developed with large databases, as occurs today.
“The anatomy of the brain has been known for a long time, the challenge now is to better understand how this incredible machine works and, based on that knowledge, to be able to generate new types of biologically inspired AI that do not pose a threat to humanity,” he explains in an interview with EFE.
The aspiration, according to the neuroscientist, is that this new biologically inspired AI, also known as ‘neuro AI’, “works in a similar way to the human brain, understands people’s intentions and is capable of interacting with them and enhancing their capabilities.”
Connect brain and technology
“We are moving towards the connection of the human mind with artificial intelligence, with robots and with other human minds. The day will come when our brain will be connected to the technological devices that we use on a daily basis, tablets, mobile phones, etc.”, he predicts.
The first part: the brain-machine connection (known as BCI, Brain-Computer Interface) continues to provide good news to improve the lives of people with paralysis or disabilities.
Thanks to these interfaces, every day more people affected by paralysis or stroke are able to communicate better with the outside world or move a prosthesis; while others with visual or hearing loss recover lost abilities, among other applications.
Scientists have even created electropharmaceuticals: implants that give orders to the brain to fight conditions, such as diabetes, without the need for medications.
The great challenge is that most of these advances require a brain implant, with the potential complications of surgery or the rejection that this procedure can generate in the patient, explains Rao.
The next step will be “for these brain-computer interfaces not only to restore lost functions, but to enhance the abilities of the brain so that it can go beyond what human capabilities allow.”
“We are still in the initial phase, but we are moving towards that path, which, without a doubt, must be accompanied by ethical guidelines from governments,” says Rao.
He believes that, “like any other impactful technology, brain-enhancing interfaces will be revolutionary and dangerous at the same time.”
When will we start seeing them? The scientist believes that no later than a decade.
The ‘father’ of telepathic communication
A few years ago, Rao and his team managed to make another of the great dreams of science come true: telepathy.
His BrainNet system made it possible for a computer to “read another person’s mind” and transmit its intentions to another person or others. In other words: he managed to communicate with several people without seeing each other or even having a word between them. A computer decoded the information from one person’s brain and reproduced it in the brain of another person or others.
They also did it without the need for an implant, using a cap that collects the electrical activity of the brain. With it in mind, Rao and another researcher played a video game with a third partner.
Only two of them, separately, could see the video game screen, but they did not have controls to execute the actions. The probe collected their brain activity, sent it to the computer, and the computer in turn transmitted the orders to a third person to move the controls without being able to see the screen.
In other experiments, they managed to communicate ‘telepathically’, via computer, to a dozen people.
“At the moment we have managed to communicate simple messages, now we want to improve the system to be able to transmit complex thoughts between people,” he concluded.