Wearable device manufacturers are collecting brain data to train artificial intelligence—without the users' knowledge.
Scientific investigations reveal that companies have amassed tens of millions of hours of brain-wave data from neurotechnology-enabled headbands, and they face few restrictions on how this data is used.
Half an hour before bed, Adnan Jinnah sits in a chair and puts on a headband. It looks like something a tennis player might wear, except for a large, rectangular button on the front. When he’s ready to sleep, he lies down, presses the button, and launches an app on his phone. "That’s basically it," he says.
While he sleeps, sensors in the device capture Jinnah’s brain activity, heart rate, blood flow, and brain oxygenation. These signals are then interpreted by algorithms that provide data on his sleep quality, which he can review in the morning.
The device, known as the Muse headband, was developed by the Canadian consumer neurotechnology company Interaxon. Jinnah, who lives in Leicester, England, has struggled with intermittent sleep issues for over four years. He says the device’s daily reports allow him to track the quality of his sleep from the previous night and observe how a lack of sleep affects his mood. The device also provides long-term data on his sleep, which has helped him understand how various factors—such as medication or stress—can influence his rest.
Huanao Security claims that its helmets help ensure employee safety. If an individual’s data indicates a high risk of an accident, the system issues an alert, encouraging the worker to take a break. "We believe that the safety of workers in high-risk roles is a very important use case," says Zaixi. The company reports having issued nearly 5,000 safety alerts and "prevented several serious accidents."
Neurotechnologies that monitor fatigue are becoming increasingly common in high-risk occupations in China—a country that recently introduced a national standard recognizing the use of such systems for investigating traffic accidents. They are also being used at large mining and construction sites in Latin America, Africa, Australia, and elsewhere.
However, critics argue that these technologies could threaten privacy and be misused by authorities. It has been discovered, for instance, that brain data collected by another Chinese company is being passed on to traffic police without any anonymization. And while some neuroscientists suggest that the neural data gathered by these devices may be too unreliable to reveal much information about users, others fear that, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), these systems could enable companies—and governments—to decipher some of the most intimate aspects of our lives.