Neuralink: Musk's Frankenstein or Humanity's Saviour?

If artificial intelligence or AI scares you, you may want to stop reading now, as the implication of Elon Musk’s “Neuralink” project place is firmly in the “Frankenstein” horror genre.

Much discussion has been focused on the rapid development of AI and the road to artificial “General” intelligence, generally defined as when computers using AI become more intelligent than the entire human race combined. Many observers rightly worry about what role is left for the human race when AI superintelligence makes humans look dumb and irrelevant.

The human brain is an extraordinary organic computer, with memories manifesting as electrical impulses between neurons. Our intelligence stems from consciousness, encompassing self-awareness and the ability to plan based on past experiences and future predictions. Individual memories, largely unshared collectively, drive our daily actions. Tragically, when we die, this unique intelligence and personal history typically vanish, which is massively wasteful.

AI systems, in contrast, learn collectively and preserve knowledge indefinitely. Envision a toddler mastering walking and instantly sharing this skill with all peers worldwide. This exemplifies how AI supercomputers function, explaining the exponential growth of AI technology.

Interestingly, humans are relatively slow communicators. Our brains Humans communicate, on average, at 1 bit per minute over a day, mainly via the spoken word or keystrokes.

Our brains process ideas and turn them into words to communicate them to other humans or computers via keystrokes. This forces a distillation of an idea to speak it, which is good. However, the effective transfer rate depends on how other humans interpret these words and can visualise the person's intent. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of leakage and inefficiency here.

Humans can only communicate at 1% of the rate of computers, making us massively inefficient in their eyes. From their perspective, they must wait for an eternity to respond to their prompts for information or a response.

Through his well-funded Neuralink business, USA entrepreneur Elon Musk is focused on building a faster connection between computers and the human brain.

The company is developing implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to help those with paralysis and neurological conditions in the near term and enhancing human-AI interaction in the long term.

Neuralink's core technology consists of ultra-thin probes inserted into the brain to detect neural signals and custom-designed electronics and software processes used to interpret brain signals. The company's first device, the N1 Link, is a 1024-channel implant designed to be invisible once inserted and capable of wireless data transmission.

In recent interviews, Musk was clear that although the early focus was helping disabled quadriplegics and blind people overcome neural damage, this was just because the “Rewards” were significant enough to counterbalance the risk associated with this new procedure.

However, as the number of transplants grows and the risk diminishes, he expects these tools to become freely available, creating humans with superpowers.

For example, suppose Neural links can stimulate the brain to replicate regular visual sight. Why not also give the user the ability to have infrared or radar, as the computer providing the service supports these technologies?

Neuralink's long-term vision is to enable direct brain-computer communication, potentially accelerating human-machine interaction tenfold by bypassing traditional input methods. This neural interface could theoretically provide instant access to vast online knowledge repositories, potentially revolutionising human creativity and cognitive capabilities.

This technology could theoretically enable the transfer of human memories and decision-making processes to digital systems, preserving individual cognition beyond death and potentially creating collective intelligence. Such advancements raise profound questions about the nature of consciousness, identity, and the future of humans as a race.

Whether such “Frankenstein” technologies will benefit humanity is yet to be seen, but the complete lack of regulation over AI Ethics should concern everyone.

AI development is currently dominated by companies with the largest “Compute” resources. However, the next frontier in advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI) will likely centre on access to high-quality training data. Elon Musk's strategic investments in X (Twitter) and Tesla's Optimus robot project potentially position him to acquire vast amounts of real-world data, which could prove crucial in realising his AI ambitions.

Where Musk is “Jekyll or Hyde,” his vast wealth allows him to steer humans’ future in the direction of his choice with little ethical oversight. Personally, I admire the guy, but just thinking through the logical conclusions to this technology scares the hell out of me.

Welcome to the future!