The hype surrounding Elon Musk’s mysterious Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI) is growing, as the billionaire tech CEO is slowly explaining how the chip would work, but experts have a caveat: the chip, along with other neural interfaces, could be hacked.
(Photo: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
Experts warn that brain-computer interface like the Neuralink chip could be hacked.
Security experts warn about BCIs
According to a Daily Mail report, experts have issued a warning that hackers could target these BCIs, including Musk’s Neuralink chip, to create a worse separation than anything else.
Based on the report, hackers could use the tech, read and steal thoughts and memories, and erase your skills, which can easily be mistaken for a Black mirror episode – only that it could happen in real life.
Elon Musk has been working on Neuralink since 2016 when he first founded it.
Not much has been said about the company, nor about the brain chip they have been working on, except for a few details that Musk has announced about his Twitter account.
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Competing with AI
But one thing is for sure: Musk said he has developed the neural interface so that humans can compete with artificial intelligence and prevent a pre-apocalypse of Singularity, which is the theory that AI and robots will soon take over humans.
In an earlier interview with the New York Times, Musk predicted that in the next five years, humans could already be taken over by AI, and although humanity will not die out, it could be “uncomfortable.”
Some of the details the tech CEO has shared via social media are the chip’s ability to cure depression, change the wearer’s mood, hear things they could not hear before, and even cure mobility problems, which can be helpful for people who have paralysis due to injured spine.
But while BCIs, specifically Neuralink’s chip, seem to be a great answer to many problems with our bodies, security experts are concerned.
Why target neural interfaces?
ZDNet reports that experts believe that cybercriminals would try to hack these kinds of technologies, especially since they could use it to bring down large corporations to even peoples, because they could read the minds of political leaders, business leaders, and the like.
Furthermore, experts were able to quickly use these neural chips as a verification mechanism, because the patterns of our brain activities are incredibly unique.
They believe it could be used to allow access to sensitive data, which is why cybercriminals think it would be worthwhile to hack into these systems, despite the challenge they face in replicating brainwaves would stelle.
But in case a hack occurs, what are the consequences?
“What type of damage will occur [an attack] do to the brain, will it erase your skill or limit your skill? What are the consequences – would they come in the form of just new information being placed in the brain, or would it even drop to the level of harmful neurons, which then leads to a process of rewiring within the brain that then it disturbs your thinking, “said Research Director Dr. Sasitharan Balasubramaniam of the Waterford Institute of Technology’s Telecommunication Software and Systems Group (TSSG).
To avoid these scenarios in the least possible way, manufacturers like Musk’s Neuralink should ensure the safety of these interfaces by using all sorts of trusted measures to “ensure that no unauthorized person can modify their functionality.”
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Written by: Nhx Tingson
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