Apple Embraces Brain-Implant Technology to Control Devices - Tech News Briefing
Apple wants to make iPhones more accessible to people with disabilities. Digital-health reporter Rolfe Winkler takes us into the world of brain computer interfaces . Plus, reporter Amrith Ramkumar talks about the revocation of the AI Diffusion Rule and how companies are reacting. Victoria Craig hosts.
Full Transcript
This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Victoria Craig: Hey, TNB listeners, before we get started, heads-up, we're going to be asking you a question at the top of each show for the next few weeks. Our goal here at Tech News Briefing is to keep you updated with the latest headlines and trends on all things tech. Now we want to know more about you, what you like about the show, and what more you'd like to hear from us. So, our question this week is what kind of stories about tech do you want to hear more of? Business decision-making, boardroom drama, how about peeking inside tech leaders' lives or tech policy? If you're listening on Spotify, you can look for our poll under the episode description, or you can send an email to tnb@wsj.com. Now on to the show. Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Thursday, May 15th. I'm Victoria Craig for The Wall Street Journal. A controversial rule restricting the spread of US AI technology around the world has been canceled, but what comes in its place is still unclear. Then, controlling your devices with just your thoughts isn't only the stuff of science fiction anymore. Our reporter has an exclusive look at how Apple is embracing development of brain implant control technology. But first, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead the next industrial revolution and create high-paying US jobs. That is how chip-making giant Nvidia described a US Commerce Department decision on Wednesday to rescind the so-called AI Diffusion Rule. It's a Biden-era policy that the Trump administration rolled back a day before it was due to go into effect. It would have imposed limits on how many AI chips US companies could sell to other countries. Speaking at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh earlier this week, White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks explained why he believed the rule was flawed.
Audio: Imagine if Washington had created a diffusion rule for the iPhone because it was worried about bad guys somehow getting a hold of iPhones, and every iPhone transaction had to be licensed in Washington. This technology would not have spread all over the world. And the diffusion of iPhones is a very good thing for the United States of America. I think in a similar way, we want our technology to diffuse.
Victoria Craig: WSJ reporter Amrith Ramkumar has been following the fallout of the rule since it was announced in January. Amrith, this rule has been a controversial one, not just for US tech companies, but ones outside the US that want to import these AI chips. So, just bring us up to speed. Remind our listeners why this has been so controversial.
Amrith Ramkumar: In the final days of the Biden administration, their Commerce Department put out this super complicated rule that would limit how many chips, many countries and countries that are friendly with the US, the amount of advanced chips they could buy. A lot of companies thought that would limit their business opportunities abroad and push those countries to embrace Chinese companies, like Huawei, if they had easier access to those chips. So, people were really upset and frustrated and they weren't really sure what the Trump administration was going to do. Last week, people basically found out that the Trump administration was going to completely rescind that Biden-era rule, and then they'll come out with their own rule in the coming months. And we have reporting showing that one of the options they're considering is basically instead of having a tiered system where countries have caps on the amount they can buy, they're going to do a series of bilateral country-to-country chip purchase agreements. So far, the early indications are based on the president's trip to the Middle East and the big chip deals with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices in Saudi Arabia and expected announcements to come in the UAE that this will all be good for US companies, because a lot of them were looking at caps in an uncertain environment, and now it seems like the administration with countries that are friendly with the US is basically willing to take off a lot of the guardrails. So, that's pushed up some of the stocks and there's a lot of enthusiasm now. People in the national security community though, are very cautious about this, and they're unhappy in some cases, because they worry that countries like the UAE could still send Nvidia chips or other sensitive technology to China. So, there is this tension that will play out in the administration over time.
Victoria Craig: Is there a blueprint for what kind of guardrails the US could put in place since it's now taking this rule away for exactly what you just said, for preventing other countries from eventually just getting those chips in China's hands anyway?
Amrith Ramkumar: It's not super clear. We have reporting showing that the Commerce Department has said that they want to crack down on smuggling and how chips get routed through third-party countries to China, but that's more on the enforcement side of these rules. And we've heard that whatever the Trump team decides to do, there will be language basically saying if these end up in China, you'll be in deep trouble. But again, that might not be the deterrent that some national security hawks want.
Victoria Craig: Is there any indication how long some of these negotiations could take if they do adopt this country-by-country approach to rules-making?
Amrith Ramkumar: People have said it could take up to a few months potentially to iron these out, and the assumption is that they'll start with big countries where US firms do a lot of business and try to reach those deals that way. But a lot of this is evolving rapidly, so the Commerce Department could end up not doing a bunch of bilateral deals. We've heard they're not too far along in the process. It's definitely going to take some time, and that's an issue because there's also evidence that countries like Malaysia are getting a lot more chips that are then going to China. Also, the technology is evolving so rapidly that a lot of the thresholds that are set for what's a high-performing chip and what you can buy, those can be outdated in a short amount of time. So, it's definitely a tricky one for commerce to figure out.
Victoria Craig: Which countries are on the list of ones that could potentially be easier to strike first deals with?
Amrith Ramkumar: Well, they're definitely prioritizing, again, this week they wanted to have good news in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. So, those are a few. And then there are many other allies that were in tier two under the old rule basically, that people were very confused about and they thought shouldn't have such limits on chip access. So, countries like India, even a bunch of European countries like Switzerland, Israel, you can go on and on.
Victoria Craig: That was Amrith Ramkumar, a WSJ reporter covering tech and crypto policy. Coming up, Apple has joined with a startup that's developed a brain implant that will help people who can't use their hands to better use technology. We'll tell you how after the break. What if to use an iPhone, you never have to actually touch the device? The idea is becoming more plausible thanks to new technology Apple hopes to harness with a startup called Synchron and its implantable brain device. Rolfe Winkler covers digital health for The Wall Street Journal. Rolfe, just explain how this new technology could actually work.
Rolfe Winkler: Apple has always been big on accessibility features for disabled people, and they have something called Switch Control on your iPhone, for instance, that literally switches control of the device. Normally you use a finger to scroll around the screen, or on your Mac you're using a mouse, and it switches control to another input device like a joystick. But in this case, they're going to make Switch Control accessible via brain-computer interfaces. So, it's a neural signal that is being relayed, translated, and then relayed to the computer.
Victoria Craig: And so, this could make Apple's devices more accessible for tens of thousands of people, like you just said, through a brain implant. Can you just explain a little bit more for our listeners how that exactly will work? If you have the implant, how then can you control your devices? And what devices?
Rolfe Winkler: So, there's a number of companies that are working on these next-generation brain implants. They're called brain-computer interfaces because they're an interface between your brain and a computer. Basically electrodes that are implanted inside your skull and that read neural signals. And the way they work is those neural signals are relayed to a chip, which then relays the data to a decoding device. And that device, you basically trained this whole apparatus to understand which neural signals translate to actions in the real world. The first use of these devices is really to interact with technology. So, the first company to do this was a company called Synchron.
Victoria Craig: So, how is Apple working with Synchron on this?
Rolfe Winkler: Well, Apple isn't going to put an implant in your brain, to be clear. A better way to think about it, hearing aids, people with hearing aids wanted to be able to access their Apple devices. So in 2014, Apple creates a standard by which hearing aids connect via Bluetooth to your iPhone or to your other Apple devices. Makes a lot of sense, right? So, I'm wearing AirPods, that's how I hear my conversations on the phone, and that's how people with hearing aids would do it. So, let's just connect them. What we're talking about here is basically something similar where people who manufacture these devices will have an on-ramp to the Apple devices. Apple is building the on-ramp for them to make it easier for them to connect to its devices.
Victoria Craig: And there have been some human trial participants who have had these kind of implants implanted into their brains. You spoke to one of those people. How have these early tests worked and what is their view about how they work?
Rolfe Winkler: I spoke to Mark Jackson who has the Synchron implant, and Mark says, look, the Synchron implant can help a little bit. It's slow. This is the beginning of a clinical trial of this device. It's going to be a few years yet before it's proved out, it gets commercial approval, and lots of people are able to get these implanted. So, right now with the tests, Mark is saying, look, it's slow going. It basically mimics scrolling and clicking. It doesn't quite do what you do with a mouse where you can move the cursor around and select something. Imagine that you're in Netflix and there are rows of icons. What Switch Control might do is select the whole screen and then you think click, and then it narrows it to, okay, you want this row, you want dramas. Well, all right, now I'm going to run the selection tool over each individual one in that row because I know you selected that row. And then when you get to the one that you want, you can think click again. So, then drama, I just picked Marriage Story and that's the movie I'm going to watch. But that's not as fast as scrolling with a scroll wheel and moving across with your mouse. And if you want to type out a message, you're not typing on a keyboard very quickly. You're having this selection tool go across, okay, I want the first row of letters. I think click. Okay, A through G. I want F, or I want E, or something. But all that said, it still gives him an ability to interact with devices in a way he hasn't been able to.
Victoria Craig: So, there's still a ways to go with the development of these kinds of implants. How far away is this technology from becoming more widely available?
Rolfe Winkler: Synchron says theirs is several years away. Morgan Stanley thinks that commercial approval for BCIs won't come before 2030. Synchron says they can beat that.
Victoria Craig: That was WSJ Digital Health Reporter Rolfe Winkler. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang with supervising producer Emily Martocci. I'm Victoria Craig for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back this afternoon with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.
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