English transcript

And the challenge in this space is that in many ways

it's a brand new frontier.

Even though there's been research into this area

for really decades and neuroscience has been around

for a very long time, if you think about against

the backdrop of social media, of a world

of surveillance capitalism, of a lot of mistrust

around misuse of technology and data,

what you see is that there are quite a few people,

even neurotechnology experts, who express some concerns

about trust and mistrust within the space

and whether or not consumers will be comfortable

adopting technology that could be extraordinarily

promising for health and wellness,

but also could present novel risks with respect

to the capabilities of decoding mental states,

even being able to decode intentionally communicated speech

from some individuals in certain circumstances.

And so the question is, in that world where in many ways

it's been described as the last frontier of privacy,

that is mental privacy, what is at risk?

And what's at risk here is the challenge

to profound concepts of freedom of thought

and profound concepts of self-determination

over brain and mental experiences.

What's at risk as well, though, is that mistrust

of an entire category of technology could prevent adoption

and advancement in a field that could be transformative

for human health and well-being and for human flourishing.

Noticing just the sheer number of people

who are suffering from neurological disease and suffering,

if this is a field that has early missteps,

if there is significant rejection

of the technology writ large, it'll be very difficult

to make true advancements in brain health and wellness,

which is one of the most unmet areas of need

within humanity.