So, you have a chip in your brain. Now what?

How can we ensure that having a chip in the brain is safe? How can we protect these devices from being hacked? What will happen to the data collected by the BCIs? What about maintenance?

Imagine you’ve just got a brand new brain-computer interface. This chip implanted in your brain is the first such device for consumers and represents the greatest achievement of neurotechnology.

The procedure went smoothly - after you arrived at the clinic, a surgeon removed a small piece of your skull and the surgical robot precisely threaded electrodes thinner than a human hair into the brain. After waking up, you try out what can you do with your brand-new brain-computer interface (BCI). First, you need to calibrate the chip in your head with a training app. After that, you managed to type a message to a friend using only your thoughts. Excited, you download some apps for the BCI. There's one app that detects when anxiety or depression is about to strike and suppresses those emotions. Another highly recommended app can put your mind into a state of flow on demand, something that will be very useful at work. And last but not least, you can now finally play that game with your cyborg friends.

This is the future neurotech companies working on BCIs hope to achieve. However, there is a long road ahead before booking an appointment for a BCI becomes as straightforward as getting laser eye surgery today. Currently, the neural interface technology is in the research phase, primarily aimed at medical applications such as enabling locked-in patients to communicate with the world or restoring mobility to paralyzed individuals. It will require significantly more research and development to scale from the roughly 50 people who have ever had BCIs implanted in their brains to tens of thousands, if not more, potential customers.

Along the way, the BCI industry will have to overcome many challenges and answer many questions lying ahead. How can we ensure that having a chip in the brain is safe? How can we protect these devices from being hacked? What will happen to the data collected by the BCIs? What about maintenance? What would happen if the manufacturer drops the support or goes out of business?