170
AI and brain-computer interface allow speechless ALS patient to work a full-time job
(www.theregister.com)
So we’re making servitors now?
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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Technology
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I mean he's a pretty cool guy, he does organizing and strategy work for campaigns of people who fight climate change and he's a climate activist. He's obviously been afflicted with a terrible illness, but he's also got some things going for him, despite his families insistence they don't have generational wealth he did go to Duke so there's still a good deal of privilege in this claim.
From all accounts it seems he's fighting the good fight. So it's a pretty cool thing that's happened but it's definitely gonna eventually open the door to awful things because capitalism is evil.
So now you can't even be paralyzed in peace
Starts strong but dam, capitalism just sneaks up and slaps the happy right out of ya.
Jesus Christ, the focus on working a job in that title 😞
Because that's the only way you can be worth something.
/c/aboringdystopia
To me this title reads more like a capitalistic celebration of potential labor from an otherwise un-exploitable workforce, instead of a celebration of a major breakthrough in giving some semblance of dignity and autonomy to a person who was robbed of it by this terrible affliction.
So brainrotten, is not an efficient use of acquiring new labour. Work can give people a sense of purpose, this guys job is climate activism so im sure he feels very happy to be able to go back to work.
Yeah, this is fucked up but also neat? I mean, now social security can deny someone with something as debilitating as ALS and tell him to get an implant and go to work??? 😳
Agreed! A better title would be:
AI and brain-computer interface allow speechless ALS patient to speak with 92% accuracy in daily use
Or like the other comment mentioned, could now for the first communicate with His daughter and family.
for real! this should be about how we are on the precipice of letting people with debilitating conditions enjoy their lives and spend time with people they care about instead of immediately saying "just think of the implications for shareholder value!"
Yeah, the presentation is a tad dystopian.
Still an eminently cool breakthrough, though I've read that BCI's are hackable and that notion sounds pretty scary.
Damn, we really got to Pantheon's "Uploaded Intelligence" concept before GTA 6.
The lab has built its own software platform for operating BCI devices known as Brain-computer interface for Rapidly Adaptive Neural Decoding (BRAND, which Brandman told us was coincidentally named), which UCD postdoctoral fellow Nick Card built machine learning algorithms for.
Aah.. So not LLMs. Makes sense.
Also to the reporter who decided to focus on 'full time job' in the title. You focused on 5 hours of work instead of the fact that the patient can now interact with his daughter, who never heard him speak, and also he is able to have conversations with his friends and family. Please be more human.
🤦
And suddenly all investors will spend billions to promote this tech.
Peak capitalism. The Matrix would be proud
"We told people with a debilitating speech condition to get off the government dole and work a fucking job"
They're just looking forward to employees that physically can't leave.
Too soon, bro, TOO. SOON!
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.
I'm sure that patient is happy to find something to do that adds to the general pool of "things we do".
I also hope that they also say "fuck this", retire, and do art full time if its their jam.
Yes, screw the working part, but anything else they get from it that they want to pursue I'm all for it. And sure, if they want to do some sort of work, that's fine, but they shouldn't have to.
New slave market discovered.
[CAPITALISM INTENSIFIES]
r/orphancrushingmachine -I'm not sure there's a parallel lemmy community.
If you cant work, we will invent solutions!
Work must continue
Proprietary tech with no existing laws telling the companies they have to keep supporting it, all so I can make a rich person richer? Where do I sign up?
Hell yeah. Next, they can get a cut of every dollar made! Or a subscription service with strict usage limits and add-ons to re-enable disabled functionality. It's one or the other.
I wonder if he can use slurs.
They can only use slurs that refer to people with their condition, like cr**ple.
So AI helps disadvantaged people get in to the wage-slave-queue to fight for their lives against everyone else.. How sweet. Too bad AI/Capitalism takes away the potential jobs needed for that..
Imbecile coping from an archaic failing ideology, and the focus should be on their cognitive well-being - not their potential contribution to this Fascist regime we are living in..