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AI and brain-computer interface allow speechless ALS patient to work a full-time job
(www.theregister.com)
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
98 points (93.8% liked)
Technology
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Yes there are a lot of dark sides to this but I am still somewhat hopeful for people whose body have betrayed them.
Unfortunately the unmentioned horror of this technology as it currently stands is similar to "Flowers for algernon". The brain is extremely territorial and doesn't like weird metallic stuff stuck in it. In response, I believe the astrocytes build encapsulating scar tissue around the probes that eventually deafen them. I have been following this tech since the early stages in the late 90's and no one seems to have solved that. Truly bitter experience for epilepsy and near terminally depressed patients who have been given some semblance of normallacy only to have it slip away.
A currently insanely expensive probe design has something like a magnet on a mems platform so a less reactive and normally insulating material can be used to "sense" electrical impulses. Sadly it has something brutal like a sub 5% production yield and can be damaged almost anywhere along the journey from a fabrication laboratory to a operating room.