Cyborg: AI and Human Brain Integration
To understand the idea and technology behind the collective intelligence of a human brain and the
artificial one, we first must understand its key features, efficiency and capability once merged with the
human brains.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is basically the intelligence of machines enabled by the implementation of
programming languages and skills. Artificial Intelligence gives the machines capability to mimic human
actions, think, learn and adapt. It also enables human like traits in the machines such as problem-solving
skills but faster and planning the course of actions to complete the assigned goals more accurately and
in lesser time.
The most important subsets of Artificial Intelligence are machine learning and deep learning, wherein
the former allows machines to automatically adapt to new data with minimum human assistance and
the latter has the techniques that allow the machines to improve its learning using data absorption. In
deep learning text, audio, images and videos are considered as data.
AI is expected as the fastest growing technology which has the potential to generate several jobs and
minimize human efforts. In the present era we have self-driving cars, smarter virtual assistance, surgical
robots and many such intelligent machines, but even though it is the smartest technology yet, does it
have the potential to not rely on human mind at all? Is AI enough in itself? Can it outsmart human
brain’s intellect?
These kinds of questions gave birth to a curiosity and this curiosity gave birth to something more
advanced than AI “Cyborg”.
Cyborg
Now the question arises what is cyborg and how is it related to AI?
Cyborg, short form for “Cybernetic Organism” is a word used to describe a being which has both organic
and biometric body parts and whose abilities are greater than the abilities of a normal human being.
Speaking in terms of AI, cyborg intelligence aims to achieve the successful integration of AI with Human
Intelligence which will result in greater intellect reducing the weaknesses of both AI and human brain.
This integrated intelligence will have the higher problem-solving capabilities and the benefit of human
intuition that the brain can sense in various situations.
Multiple efforts in its successful implementation are on-going from many years now but somehow,
somewhere, something fails in reaching the expectations. There has been a recent breakthrough which
has given Cyborg new hopes.
The Bio-synthetic material
As per the presentation presented at the American Chemical Society Fall 2020 virtual expo, scientists
have discovered a bio-synthetic material as a result of recent researches, this material is expected to be
able to merge AI with Human Brain. The use of this material will be a major step towards the integration
of electronics and human body parts to create cyborg beings.
Why not traditional materials?
Before the introduction of this new material, traditional materials like gold, silver, steel and silicon were
used. Use of the above-mentioned materials has always been a challenge for connecting electronic
machines to human tissues as they cause scarring while implantation. These scars create an interrupted
environment for the transmission and reception of electronic signals required for the synchronization
between brain tissues, body muscles and the electronic devices which can also cause irreversible
damage to the mind and the body. University of Delaware claim to have overcome this after use of
multiple types of polymers.
“We got the idea for this project because we were trying to interface rigid organic microelectrodes with
the brain, but brains are made out of organic, salty, live materials," said Dr David Martin, who led the
study.
"It wasn't working well, so we thought there must be a better way. We started looking at organic
electronic materials like conjugated polymers that were being used in non-biological devices. We found
a chemically stable example that was sold commercially as an antistatic coating for electronic displays."
PEDOT
The new polymer is known as PEDOT which is known to have high and stable electrical conductivity
which can further be increased for thin films and single crystals. These conductivity values are
remarkable as this property of PEDOT allows integration of electronic hardware with human tissue
without causing scarring and improving the performance of medical implants.
PEDOT can also be used to sense or treat brain or nervous system disorders, to detect early stages of
tumor growth and to stimulate blood vessel growth after injury in a human body.
Implementation
Many companies and research institutions are working on a technology to connect brains to computers
and to soon release a commercial product with same but enhanced capabilities. Company owners claim
that the successful integration and implementation of AI with human brains can extend the hearing
range beyond normal frequencies and can also allow music streaming directly to the brains.
Soon we can expect to see some mind-blowing technologies and machines that felt impossible a decade
ago. It not only gives us hope to be able to use such technologies but also to have career options in such
fields. It will be able cure diseases due to medical advancements achieved by it and will help in saving
several lives.