AI and brain-computer interface allow speechless ALS patient to work a full-time job

Imagine being paralyzed so badly that not only can't you move your hands or feet, but you can't speak either. For years, brain computer interfaces have presented the tantalizing promise of reading brainwaves well enough to allow a person to communicate and access a PC. Now, a new breakthrough shows how someone can talk and even …

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Of course he's working. It's the US. The whole point was to force him back to work...

[PRR]

> It's the US.

Obviously. In this UK-roots publication. Eyebrows raised.

Lou Gehrig is a minor hero in baseball. His farewell speech reverberates through the ages. In US (maybe Canada?) culture. In the UK it is MND and ALS (closely related, laymen needn't care).

[Ochib]

Lou Gehrig is the most unlucky man to ever live....

I mean seriously, what are the odds of dying from a disease that has the same name as you?

[TheMaskedMan]

"The whole point was to force him back to work..."

Some people enjoy their job, y'know. To the extent that they don't want to retire. Imagine being able to return to a job you loved thanks to this new technomagic - that must be terrific!

This is an amazing application of technology that would have been science fiction just a few years ago. Suddenly, it seems that the world is changing incredibly quickly - computers hooked up to brains, armies of little silver humanoid robots tottering around, moon bases... Truly, we are living in 1970s Doctor Who! Or maybe I'm just getting old(er) and (more) cynical by the day.

Either way, hats off to the boffins behind the magic!

[bill 27]

"Some people enjoy their job, y'know."

I got paid to do my hobby. Now that I'm retired I still do my hobby.

[Elongated Muskrat]

We're withdrawing your PIP, as our records show you are capable of working, despite being paralysed from the neck down, and needing machinery to remain alive.

[ecofeco]

LOL, beat me to it,

THIS is the sought after holy grail? Back to work?

While the technology is very impressive and being able to communicate when not being able to do so is liberating in every sense of the word, and going back to work does often bring a sense of structure and fulfillment to one's life, a disabled person should not have to work unless they want to.

But of course, it's the USA, where being disabled is a slow death sentence unless you have enough income Becasue disability benefits cover nowhere near enough..

[Elongated Muskrat]

See also: the UK, where disabled people are expected to barely exist, and if they have the temerity to try to work to improve their lot, they get 80% of their support withdrawn, ending up both unable to work, and destitute.

[MachDiamond]

"THIS is the sought after holy grail? Back to work?"

Why do you scoff? It could get dozens of people worldwide off the dole. Maybe I exaggerate a bit, but at least 10.

[The Indomitable Gall]

Work can be rewarding, and some people don't want to be retired on health grounds. Me, for example. Having been "invalided out" in a road collision, I've had my main leisure activity, long-distance cycling, removed from me, and I'm struggling to find something else to build an identity around.

And for me, I'm mostly mobile (it's relatively minor coordination and attention issues that mean I'd probably kill myself cycling in traffic). What leisure issues are open to someone with ALS/MND...? His life exists in thinking; many jobs require only thinking and expressing those thoughts. He can now express his thoughts, so he can think through problems.

He therefore has a purpose in life.

I don't mean this in a totalitarian utilitarian way -- I'm not saying that he is useful to society, but that he has direction and goals.

[Ginolard]

Oh good. Another project manager

[sabroni]

re: Oh good. Another project manager

Someone with a terrible disabling disease is now able to communicate with this family and colleagues.

What sort of a fuck nugget thinks "Oh good. Another project manager" is an appropriate reaction to that?

[Rich 2]

WTF????

I’m as much of a cynical bastard as the next man but really, you need to climb back into your cave. I hope the sea comes in and washes you away

[Anonymous Coward]

Intelligence agencies

Intelligence agencies are light years ahead of that.

Mind reading is a reality, with directed energy and implants.

Zero physical connections.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Re: Intelligence agencies

And mental health issues are apparently as prevalent in society as ever... :(

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Intelligence agencies

I'll let you in on a little secret.

Most classified intelligence stuff is secret because it's embarrassing, not high tech.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Intelligence agencies

Give a few examples of your case files, agent.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Intelligence agencies

Meow

[Efer Brick]

Re: Intelligence agencies

I knew you were going to say that1

[Elongated Muskrat]

Re: Intelligence agencies

But how do the mind control satellites stay aloft if the Earth is flat?

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: Intelligence agencies

> how do the mind control satellites stay aloft if the Earth is flat?

Because space is curved… bent ?

"Mind control satellites" presupposes the existence of minds to control for which the evidence is equivocal.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Intelligence agencies

"But how do the mind control satellites stay aloft if the Earth is flat?"

Besides things stuck in drawers, Anoia has that as one of her tasks.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: Intelligence agencies

"Intelligence agencies are light years ahead of that. Mind reading is a reality, with directed energy and implants."

Must have been like staring into the Untempered Schism in Trump's case.

[Sora2566]

My personal opinions on AI aside, I do hope doctors manage to give people like this their agency back.

[Evil Auditor]

That is indeed a brilliant application of AI. (My personal cynical/critical opinion on AI focuses on LLMs and their misuse.)

[ecofeco]

I agree. This is very impressive. And I am happy when any disabled person regains some self agency.

But it's also a one off project.Your average person is never going to have access to this.

[SVD_NL]

"An actual practical use of AI"

There have been practical uses for "AI" for ages. It's just the LLMs that everyone associates with "AI" are useless.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: "An actual practical use of AI"

An obvious good fit when you recall what the LM means in LLM.

The motor nerve impulses that would have been sent to the muscles involved in vocalisation are being detected in the brain and the recognition of the mapping between the patterns of those impulses into English phonemes should be right up machine learning's alley.

I don't know whether this technology could be useful for other language disorders such as aphasia but for Casey Harrell an impressive addition to his quality of life.

[JDX]

Re: "An actual practical use of AI"

If you think current commerical LLMs are "useless" then you are really not somebody who has any business working in IT. That's like thinking Visual SourceSafe is a modern source-control tool.

They WERE useless, or gimmicky at best. THey still suck at a huge number of applications. But they are also extremely useful at others. For instance, I use them often to provide visual mockups - like an "artist impression" - for home renovation or landscaping projects. It is scary how capable it is with remarkably woolly instructions. I recently told GPT the 4 or 5 key things I value in a place to live and it gave me a list of 5-10 villages and small towns I might like, and why. It was pretty much bang on, some of them were places I had never heard of.

The problem is the tech moves so quickly, you can't try it out once then move on "it's rubbish", you need to reevaluate periodically with an open mind, not looking to prove your view right.

And yes, I'm a hard-nosed software developer and trained scientist with 25 years experience from C onwards, not a Shoreditch type vibe-coding my way to profit.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Re: "An actual practical use of AI"

Another victim of OpenAI and Anthropic's brainwashing...

No, your "great tool" will never replace a skilled programmer, just useless turds that shouldn't have been in the industry in the first place, and only because the bean counters are so concerned with "ship it NOW!" that they ignore all the issues and security holes in the crap code the AI barfed out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this the start of the Cybermen?

Seriously though, if this allows people to speak and have more quality of life, then all for it.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Who says Daleks and Cybermen don't have quality of life? Wandering around the universe armed with laser guns, chasing the Doctor and his, often scantily clad, assistants round the place could be quite a lot of fun. Admittedly you don't get to kill him very often, and the bugger comes back even when you have, but there's job satisfaction in trying to attain difficult goals.

[Bebu sa Ware]

[Daleks and Cybermen] chasing the Doctor and his, often scantily clad, assistants

I don't think Leela ever encountered the Daleks or the Cybermen (their loss. :)

Simpler times — these days you wouldn't know on which side anyone's bread is buttered.

The Doctor's remarkable recuperative powers seem only to be exceeded by those of Davros.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: [Daleks and Cybermen] chasing the Doctor and his, often scantily clad, assistants

Isn't Davros out of his wheelchair, because the producers think you can't have a disabled baddie. Talk about prejudice! Keeping all the best jobs for the straight white guys...

[Roj Blake]

Re: [Daleks and Cybermen] chasing the Doctor and his, often scantily clad, assistants

And on top of that, he gets host the super-rich and powerful for their annual shindig at his estate in Switzerland every year!

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: [Daleks and Cybermen] chasing the Doctor and his, often scantily clad, assistants

Is that where the Dignitas clinic is based? The last thing the patient's hear, as they eat their final chocolate is, "Exterminate!"

[Anonymous Coward]

This sentence concerned me a bit, particularly the highlighted part (my emphasis):

« “I want desperately to not be unique or special, because that will mean I no longer have the disease or that everyone that has the disease like me can get [BCI] prescribed to them,” Harrell said. »

I'm sure he must very sadly be only too aware that ALS disease is unfortunately degenerative and incurable, and ultimately terminal, so that seemed to be a bit of an odd phrase to say. I'm afraid to say that that gave me a rather chilling thought: we all know how LLMs "make things up" or say things that are what they "think" is a reasonable pattern match, but are factually incorrect or even nonsensical. What if (and I sincerely hope this is not the case), the machine learning system is (sometimes) misinterpreting his brain activity and is essentially (sometimes) saying things that weren't quite what he was actually thinking (but rather its attempt to generate a plausible or coherent output). I'm afraid that could be like something out of a rather dark science fiction novel: a computer saying things "on your behalf" that weren't at all what you were meaning/thinking to "say", and being completely unable to do anything about it…

[Darkone-dx]

Seems ironic using AI to get him back to work, when he will probably be replaced by AI in the near future.

[Luiz Abdala]

One small step towards Warhammer 40k...

I'm happy for the people that benefit from this technlogy, even though it can be seriously misused 40 millenia down the road...

(altough that Dreadnought in Space Marine 2 was more than happy too.)