Just weeks after Elon Musk, co-founder of Neuralink, announced that the company is just six months away from implanting brain-computer interfaces in humans, both Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos invested a hefty sum into Synchron, Inc., a brain computing interface company.
On Thursday, Syncron announced it has received $75 million from its latest round of funding.
A large amount of that $75 million stemmed from an investment by Bezos Expeditions.
Another chunk of the investment came from Gates Frontier which is an investment arm of Bill Gates alongside Microsoft.
Fortune reported these details about Synchron’s goal:
Synchron is focused on restoring some helpful capabilities to paralyzed patients, who can use its Synchron Switch, a brain computer interface (BCI), to move a computer cursor on a screen with just their thoughts. With a minimally-invasive procedure, the BCI is implanted in the blood vessel on the surface of the motor cortex of the brain via the jugular vein. Other companies, including Neuralink, use more invasive techniques that involve going through the skull.
On the surface, it appears Synchron’s goal is to help those disabled but as history teaches us, new technology is usually intercepted and used for war or nefarious plans.
Another reason brain computer-interfaces are a problem for humans is that they are susceptible of being hacked.
Just imagine if a high-profile human is hacked.
The damage that can be done by a human being controlled by an outside source is unimaginable.
Both Musk, Gates, and Bezos also have invested heavily in AI technology.
If you know anything about AI, then you know AI thrives by collecting data.
And what better way to collect data than by connecting technology to the human brain.
The thought that both the world’s richest man alongside the second richest one are both investing in brain interface technologies is quite concerning.