Private companies and military sectors have moved beyond the goal of merely understanding the brain to that of augmenting and manipulating brain function. In particular, companies such as Elon Musk's Neuralink and Bryan Johnson's Kernel are hoping to harness advances in computing and artificial intelligence alongside neuroscience to provide new ways to merge our brains with computers. Musk also sees this as a means to help address both AI safety and human relevance as algorithms outperform humans in one area after another. He has previously stated, "Some high bandwidth interface to the brain will be something that helps achieve a symbiosis between human and machine intelligence and maybe solves the control problem and the usefulness problem." In a comment in Nature, 27 people from The Morningside Group outlined four ethical priorities for the emerging space of neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI), such as those being developed by Elon Musk's Neuralink startup, risk being hijacked by a rogue artificial intelligence, experts have warned--meaning a person's thoughts, decisions and emotions could be manipulated against their will by AI. The warning comes in a comment piece in the scientific journal Nature this week written by 27 neuroscientists, ethicists and machine intelligence engineers. The researchers use the hypothetical example of a paralysed man participating in a brain-computer interface trial who doesn't like the research team working with him. Artificial intelligence reading his thoughts could take his dislike as a command to harm the researchers, despite no direct command being given by the paralysed man. The researchers write: "Technological developments mean that we are on a path to a world in which it will be possible to decode people's mental processes and directly manipulate the brain mechanisms underlying their intentions, emotions and decisions; where individuals can communicate with others simply by thinking; and where powerful computational systems linked directly to people's brains facilitate their interactions with the world such that their mental and physical abilities are greatly enhanced."