Merging human beings with machines via artificially intelligent brain-computer interfaces is a major scientific achievement of the current decade. It holds the key to countless new therapeutic applications from using thoughts to manoeuvre robotic limbs to controlling psychiatric symptoms. This project aims at (but are is not limited to) exploring, identifying and translating a range of potential postoperative-related vulnerabilities introduced by brain-computer interfaces, especially those related to the notion of agency, autonomy, responsibility, estrangement, identity, privacy, and ownership. This project will develop new knowledge around understanding the phenomenology of brain-computer interfaces, but as well harm prevention in the future use of AI applications in medicine, cognitive science and neurology. Issues associated with algorithmic agency and machine learning gain of autonomy may be considered.
Supported by the Ethics Lab (via Humanities Strategic Research funding), the project comes with a bursary of $5000 in addition to the possibility of applying for a Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship or Tasmania Graduate Research Scholarship (TGRS), and may also include the opportunity to undertake an internship in one of our collaborative partners’ Lab testing brain-computer Interfaces and/or machine learning.
The project is designed to accommodate applicants from a range of disciplinary areas willing to explore the ethics of brain-computer interfaces, including, neuroethics/bioethics, applied ethics, philosophy, cognitive science, computer science, psychology.
Further details about the position can be found here: https://www.utas.edu.au/research/degrees/available-projects/projects/humanities/ETHICS-OF-BRAIN-COMPUTER-INTERFACES