A company as rich as Facebook should be able to afford supporting some blue-sky research
A company as rich as Facebook should be able to afford supporting some blue-sky research --- and can't they write it off as a loss for tax purposes?
Facebook is abandoning a project to develop a brain-computer interface (BCI), even as the researchers it funded have showcased the device helping someone with severe speech loss communicate with nothing more than thought. In a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine Facebook-funded researchers showed how a " …
The purpose for Facebook's point of view was obviously to come up with a form of neural linkage directly to a computer for a mobile phone to replace the voice interface.
Anybody passingly aware of the state of the art in Neurology knew and said in el reg's comments on this years ago that this was not remotely feasible; they are funding the neurology equivalents of the Wright flyer expecting that it was going to be a modern airliner.
To their friends who just so happen to run a charitable organisation?
Or a charity that happens to favour/promote one of their personal pet projects?
Or perhaps even to a charity in a far-away land to provide food and clothing to exploited locals...maybe the same country that provides some of their required resources like unrefined rare earths literally dug out by hand...
Cynical? Moi? With my reputation?
I thought it would have been more likely to show 'lonely singles in your area' with some variety between pensioners, milfs and barely legal teens..
How do I know? I...err....research... Yes, research. Following up on firewall rules. Yep. Yes siree... Firewall logging. Definitely that. *whistles badly*
. . because El Zuck and his minions can't see a way to milk billions out of it by next quarter.
You can be sure, however, that if ever someone else finds a way, El Zuck's lawyers will be all over it with "prior art" to suck the very life out of the project.
Down to the last penny.
I should think that someone told Zuckerberg that forcing Facebook users to undergo a USB implant might be seen a as somewhat unfair breach of the user agreement. After the tantrums stopped Mark moved everyone to the "Bad News Office" (he has a Good news office and a Bad news office) and told them to stop funding.
Facebook are now understood to be buying data on anyone in the UK who has had colorectal surgery recently with a view to implanting the neuro implant "from the other end".
What does Zuckerberg actually do with his billions
He buys large chunks of Hawaii. Also, all of the neighboring properties around his primary mansion. Because he needs his privacy, even as he is destroying everyone else's.
He also sponsors a hospital in San Francisco that massively overcharges people.
Rarely have I thought of causing serious injury to a person. Definitely not a fan of Zuck or faecesbook before the story, after reading it, I would have no problem punching the guy in the face repeatedly. Literally pulling the plug because they wouldn't make money quick enough, what a fucking lowlife
> a wrist-based sensor will track signals in the wearer's motor neurons and translate them into machine input. "In the near term, these signals will let you communicate with your device
And there it is, Facebook want you to communicate with your devices. Converting thoughts to speech can be used to communicate directly with other people, bypassing Facebook's ability to track, analyse, direct, control, and sell everything you do.