We are currently witnessing an unstoppable speeding-up of links between Big Data technology and Artificial Intelligence, on the one hand, and medical nanotechnology and neuroscience, on the other. This is leading to an increase in the production and distribution of intelligent neural devices that send information from the brain to computers - in a not-too-distant future, such devices will be able to rewrite the neural connections in our brains. Brain-computer interfaces were originally designed to deal with certain health conditions and to build a more inclusive society, although new emerging trends would seem to suggest a move towards cognitive enhancement and stimulation of the brain with a view to modifying behaviour. This technology can be found at the crossroads of neurocapitalism, autocracy and fundamental rights.
The scenario regarding social coexistence and mentally “enhanced” individuals is starting to become a reality, and it therefore makes sense to forewarn of a risk that states will give in to the temptation to use these technologies in order to keep their population under closer control. Under such a paradigm, the EU would appear to be the natural stage for supranational regulation, although this issue has, to a great extent, been left out of recent EU debates about artificial intelligence. The Jean Monnet nEUraLAW Module identifies and examines the ethical challenges and risks attached to these trends before they become widespread across the EU. nEUraLAW is a multidisciplinary project that brings together experts in Law from the EU, fundamental EU rights, Biomedical Law and data protection by linking them up with neuroscientists and engineers. The key objective is to establish dialogue based on science and facts in all areas of knowledge, with a view to enabling participants to categorise risks and encourage a regulatory change that will help to ensure that citizens’ interests remain at the heart of such developments.
