The Many Ways Elon Musk’s Neuralink Could Go Wrong
The brain-machine interface will require innovative ways of thinking about risk. We mapped it out.
Several weeks ago, I was asked to write a commentary for the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) on the ethics of Elon Musk and Neuralink’s much-touted brain-machine interface. JMIR had accepted Musk’s paper on the technology for publication and wanted to accompany its release with a number of invited papers exploring different aspects of the technology.
That commentary has just been published alongside Musk and Neuralink’s paper. Rather than writing another commentary on the ethical challenges of cutting-edge brain tech, I set out to apply our work around risk innovation to the development of the technology. And as a result, my colleague Marissa Scragg and I carried out a unique assessment of what it might take for Musk and Neuralink to create a product that is good for society as well as the company’s bottom line.
What is risk innovation?
Risk innovation is a concept acknowledging that emerging technologies and trends are creating a risk landscape that is so different from what existed in the past that conventional ways of thinking about risk are simply not up to the task of navigating them.
