By Milton Bertrand

It is evident that Homo sapiens will not go to war with machines. If anything, we will couple with them. So, we are on the verge of fusing byte and gene. The convergence of artificial intelligence and brain-computer interfaces may soon restore sight to the blind, allow the paralyzed to move robotic limbs and cure any number of brain and nervous system disorders.

However, without clear regulations, this flurry of innovation is a sign of trouble for humanity, warns a team of researchers led by Columbia University neuroscientist Rafael Yuste and University of Washington bioethicist Sara Goering.

Yuste and Goering joined by more than two dozen researchers that include physicians, ethicists, neuroscientists, and computer scientists call for ethical regulations to cover the evolving use of computer hardware and software to enhance or restore human capabilities.

"We just want to ensure that this new technology which is so exciting, and which could revolutionize our lives, is used for the good of humankind," said Yuste, director of Columbia's Neurotechnology Center and a member of the Data Science Institute.

Long ago that used to be the work science fiction; the melding of computers with the human mind to augment or restore brain function is moving closer to reality. The authors estimate that the for-profit brain implant industry is now worth $100 million, led by Bryan Johnson's startup Kernel, and Elon Musk's Neuralink. Under President Obama's BRAIN Initiative alone, The U.S. government has spent another $500 million since 2013, they write.

As these investments continue to grow, bear fruits and are promising, the authors see the following threats: the loss of individual privacy, identity and autonomy, the potential for social inequalities to widen, exploitation and manipulation of people as corporations, governments, and hackers gain added power.

For the sake of privacy, the authors recommend that individuals are required to opt in, as organ donors do, to share their brain’s data from their devices, and that the sale and commercial use of personal data are strictly regulated.

For the protect autonomy and identity, the authors recommend that an international convention is created to define what actions would be prohibited, allowed and to educate people about the possible effects on mood, personality and sense of self.

Finally, culture-specific commissions are necessary to establish norms and regulations; the potential for a brain-enhancement race pits (set in conflict, competition with) people with super-human intelligence and endurance against everyone else, they suggest. They also recommend that military use of brain technologies are controlled, much as chemical and biological weapons are already under the Geneva Protocol.

In a previous essay in the journal Cell, Yuste and Goering laid out similar arguments for the integration of ethics into brain technologies, citing the Belmont Report which set ethical principles and guidelines for research involving human subjects. "The report was issued on 30 September 1978 and published in the Federal Register on 18 April 1979."Wikipedia.

Read the essay that was published in Nature. 

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