Rafael Yuste, a neuroscience expert from Columbia University, and Jared Genser, a human rights lawyer, dive into the implications of neurotechnology and its impact on privacy. They discuss how tech can decode thoughts, raising concerns about mental privacy and manipulation. The duo emphasizes the need for regulations grounded in human rights, focusing on balancing brain augmentation's benefits with protecting individual agency. Legal measures to secure neural data privacy amidst rapid advancements are highlighted, showcasing a commitment to safeguarding what makes us human.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Realization In The Lab
Rafael Yuste describes an "Oppenheimer moment" after manipulating mouse perception in the lab.
He realized what worked in mice could be applied to humans and felt immediate ethical alarm.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Decoding Inner Speech In A Patient
Eddie Chang and team implanted electrodes to decode inner speech from a locked-in patient and created a lifelike avatar.
The work unlocked communication and also raised concerns about cloning someone's voice and expressions.
insights INSIGHT
Noninvasive Neurotech Is Already Effective
Noninvasive devices like EEG helmets already decode inner speech at modest accuracy and speed.
Noninvasive stimulation has also enhanced memory, making mental augmentation a near-term reality.
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The human brain might be the grandest computer of all, but in this episode, we talk to two experts who confirm that the ability for tech to decipher thoughts, and perhaps even manipulate them, isn't just around the corner – it's already here. Rapidly advancing "neurotechnology" could offer new ways for people with brain trauma or degenerative diseases to communicate, as the New York Times reported this month, but it also could open the door to abusing the privacy of the most personal data of all: our thoughts. Worse yet, it could allow manipulating how people perceive and process reality, as well as their responses to it – a Pandora’s box of epic proportions.
(You can also find this episode on the Internet Archive and on YouTube.)
Neuroscientist Rafael Yuste and human rights lawyer Jared Genser are awestruck by both the possibilities and the dangers of neurotechnology. Together they established The Neurorights Foundation, and now they join EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelley to discuss how technology is advancing our understanding of what it means to be human, and the solid legal guardrails they're building to protect the privacy of the mind.
In this episode you’ll learn about:
How to protect people’s mental privacy, agency, and identity while ensuring equal access to the positive aspects of brain augmentation
Why neurotechnology regulation needs to be grounded in international human rights
Navigating the complex differences between medical and consumer privacy laws
The risk that information collected by devices now on the market could be decoded into actual words within just a few years
Balancing beneficial innovation with the protection of people’s mental privacy
Jared Genser is an international human rights lawyer who serves as managing director at Perseus Strategies, renowned for his successes in freeing political prisoners around the world. He’s also the Senior Tech Fellow at Harvard University’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Right, and he is outside general counsel to The Neurorights Foundation, an international advocacy group he co-founded with Yuste that works to enshrine human rights as a crucial part of the development of neurotechnology.
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