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<ul><li>Emerging technology will undoubtedly shape professional lives as well. </li><li>Automation of repetitive chores will increase efficiency and productivity at work, allowing businesses to devote increased time and energy to higher-value, performance-oriented activities. </li><li><keyword id="3989049" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="data-fabric" source="Orion">Data fabric</keyword> can be used to see where data should be used and altered, allowing for ‘re-engineered decision-making’.</li></ul>Technology advances at a breakneck pace, but businesses aren't always prepared to capitalize the same. Due to competing goals, economic constraints, or a shortage of funds, fully researching how emerging technology might solve problems or increase income isn't always on the table. However, it should be. Even companies who are actively studying emerging technology may approach it as a series of separate initiatives, making it less likely that their efforts would provide the best results. Companies must invest in innovative technologies that can help them examine their complicated business networks. This is imperative if they are to fulfill the needs of a continuously changing marketplace, as they expand their global footprint while seeking to meet their customers' escalating expectations. These new technologies, such as Big Data, predictive analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT), are transforming how businesses operate. To help comprehend their customers and make more strategic business decisions, companies are learning new ways of collecting, exchanging and using data. Below mentioned are the top technologies that could change the IT landscape for businesses: <keyword id="14497132" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cybersecurity-mesh" source="Orion">Cybersecurity mesh</keyword> Companies can utilize this modular design to integrate stand-alone security solutions to improve overall security. This new solution, according to Gartner researcher Kasey Panetta, can cover identities outside of the typical security perimeter and improve the security for remote workers. Gartner also predicts that by 2025, cybersecurity mesh will enable more than <a href="https://intellectualpoint.com/what-is-cybersecurity-mesh/">50% of all digital access</a> control requests. This distributed architectural solution can make scaling cybersecurity control easier, as well as make it more adaptable and reliable. Cybersecurity mesh design includes four core levels: security analytics and intelligence, distributed identity fabric, consolidated policy and posture management, and consolidated dashboards. Data fabric The global data fabric market has been valued at $<a href="https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/data-fabric-market-105979">1.43 billion in 2021</a>. So, clearly this technology opens up new possibilities for integrating data sources across systems and business users. Data fabric can be used to see where data should be used and altered, allowing for ‘re-engineered decision-making’. It is a design solution that includes human and machine skills to access data and evaluate whether it should be relocated or consolidated. IoT and wearables for worker safety The technology behind the Internet of Things isn't just for machines. Companies are employing wearable devices to reduce workplace injuries and ensure that workers are wearing the proper protective gear in specific situations. The platform makes use of RFID technology as well as a wearable gadget that can be placed around the neck, fastened into a belt, or used as a belt buckle. Such devices have sensors that measure motion, position, and ambient data. Smart warehouse technology can be used in warehouses that aren't constructed expressly for robots. To sort, select, and shelve packages, such technologies employ an algorithmic engine. To move among objects and people in the warehouse, the system uses cameras and sensors, as well as rails on racks to move up and down. The technology is claimed as "retrofitting automation" by the company, and it claims that the algorithm can dynamically understand problems produced in one warehouse and apply remedies across the network. <keyword id="14497133" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="privacy-enhancing-computation" source="Orion">Privacy-enhancing computation</keyword> This strategy focuses on securing personal data in untrustworthy contexts and employs privacy-protection strategies to extract value from the data while also meeting regulatory obligations. Though this approach to information security is still in its early stages, it has huge potential to lower the risk of data breaches. <keyword id="13715154" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cloud-native-platforms" source="Orion">Cloud-native platforms</keyword> Cloud-native platforms powered by technologies can enable corporates to create new application architectures that are resilient, elastic, and agile, empowering them to react quickly to digital change. In fact, among current adopters of the model, <a href="https://www.ibm.com/cloud/cloud-native-research/pdf/IBM_Cloud%20Native.pdf">53% of applications </a>are cloud-native. Cloud-native solutions are an advancement over the typical lift-and-shift strategy to the cloud, which misses out on the advantages of the cloud and complicates maintenance. Autonomic systems Self-managing software systems that learn from their surroundings and dynamically adjust their own algorithms in real-time to maximize their performance in complex ecosystems are referred to as autonomous systems. Autonomic systems are a type of technology that supports new guidelines and scenarios, improves performance, and defends against threats without the need for human intervention. Emerging technology will undoubtedly shape professional lives as well. Automation of repetitive and dull chores will increase efficiency and productivity at work, allowing businesses to devote increased time and energy to higher-value, performance-oriented activities. Remote working, assisted by technological solutions, enables firms to acquire a dream job without the need to relocate to another nation or to tour around the world without jeopardizing their careers. Although more manual occupations are expected to be lost, the labour market will open up to a broad array of wholly new opportunities — employment that is defined and led by <keyword id="242306" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="emerging-technologies" source="Orion">emerging technologies</keyword> that will change the business operating systems unrecognizably. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/rupee-falls-below-80/-but-it-appreciated-against-euro-and-others-point-out-experts/articleshow/92980820.cms">Rupee falls below 80/$ but it appreciated against Euro and others, point out experts</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/household-items-to-get-costlier-as-new-gst-slab-comes-into-effect-in-india/slidelist/92978667.cms">New GST slab comes into effect — house rents, juice boxes, coconut water and all that’s gonna get pricier</a>

Emerging technologies that are taking corporates by the storm

<ul><li>There are 692 million active internet users in India. </li><li>Meta-owned <keyword id="790242" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="whatsapp" source="Orion">Whatsapp</keyword> suffered a two-hour global outage earlier this week, affecting 450 million India users. </li><li>Business Insider India brings to you a list of alternative messaging platforms that can be used even when there is no internet connection. </li></ul>There are 692 million active internet users in <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/indias-internet-users-grow-rural-areas-lead-growth/2610259/">India</a> and about two-thirds are on the popular messaging app Whatsapp. When the Meta-owned Whatsapp suffered a two-hour global outage earlier this week, it not only affected social connectivity but was a punch in the gut for a growing number of <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/whatsapp-s-one-hour-outage-takes-toll-on-small-businesses-11666710531867.html">small businesses</a> that use this platform for business. With analysts predicting that these kinds of outages could occur more often going ahead, it is only prudent to look for alternative options that work even offline. Business Insider India brings to you a list of alternative options that you can use to send messages without using the internet. However, these apps come with a caveat – the privacy and security of some enlisted apps are still under scrutiny, despite a few of them offering encryption. Used by journalists, activists, for disaster management or by campaign managers and travellers alike, these apps can be an efficient alternative to popular messaging apps. Here are the most popular options you can explore. 1. Near Peer Near Peer is an offline chat application that allows users with the app to chat without an internet connection in a 100-metre radius. The application is available on Google Play Store and uses a mesh network to create offline communication. It can be used for individual and group chats, although it is only available for <keyword id="6355645" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="android" source="Orion">Android</keyword> users. The app can also send files. 2. Bridgefy This application was widely used during the Hong Kong protests and the government crackdown that followed. <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.bridgefy.main&amp;hl=en_IN&amp;gl=US">Bridgefy</a> allows you to send and receive offline messages to users within 100 metres. The app uses Bluetooth to establish an offline connection to devices. This app works without <keyword id="107178" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="wifi" source="Orion">Wifi</keyword> or data and can even send encrypted broadcast messages. Data is encrypted during transit, the app claims. It is available on both Android and iOS. 3. <keyword id="15362605" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="briar" source="Orion">Briar</keyword> Users can establish offline communication by sending and receiving messages without the internet through Briar. The app is available only on Android and can be accessed through Bluetooth, Tor (free and open-source software used for undetected communication), and even through Wifi. It also lets you create blog posts, share a link for adding contacts and even create a discussion group. 4. Meshenger Meshenger is a free and open-source Android application that lets you make voice or video calls without any internet <a href="https://f-droid.org/en/packages/d.d.meshenger/">connection</a>. Users have to generate and scan the QR contact code of one another to access this app without even signing up. It also provides data backup and encrypted communication. The app is available for download on F-Droid, which is a free and open-source software. 5. Rumble Rumble is an offline Android microblogging application that also does not need an internet connection to stay active. It lets users share images and exchange messages, activating anonymous communication via Bluetooth. “Using only the social fabric as an infrastructure, it makes Rumble suitable for use cases where the Internet is either best to avoid, (surveillance/censorship) or simply not available,” claims <a href="https://f-droid.org/packages/org.disrupted.rumble/">Rumble</a>. 6. Serval Mesh Serval Mesh is another offline messaging alternative that connects nearby devices via Bluetooth. It aims to enable communications for the unfortunate who are experiencing chronic loss of the internet. “Search and discovery have become invaluable elements of the modern internet. However, for communities experiencing transient or chronic loss of <keyword id="382594" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="internet-access" source="Orion">internet access</keyword>, these facilities are not available,” <keyword id="15362604" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="serval-project" source="Orion">Serval Project</keyword> said in a <a href="https://servalpaul.blogspot.com/">statement. </a> 7. Peer Chat Peer Chat is available for iOS users and is a group messaging application that allows users to chat with upto eight contacts. The app claims all messages are encrypted, and no data is logged. This application does not store data on servers and thus makes communication more private, with no registration <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/peer-chat/id725947328">required</a>. 8. Signal Offline Messanger The popular messaging application Signal also provides offline communication through WiFi Direct, a technology that allows nearby devices to create their own Wifi network without using the internet. This technology allows free peer-to-peer connection, enabling users to exchange files, audio, video, and messages without data. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/cybersecurity-platform-blusapphire-raises-9-2-million-in-barings-pe-led-funding-round/articleshow/95117744.cms">Cybersecurity platform BluSapphire raises $9.2 million in Barings PE-led funding round</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/q2-corporate-earnings-report-banks-perform-well-moderate-growth-in-fmcg-auto/articleshow/95120418.cms">Q2 corporate earnings report: Banks perform well, moderate growth in FMCG, auto</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/facebook-picks-15-indian-online-communities-for-accelerator-programme/articleshow/95120189.cms">Facebook picks 15 Indian online communities for accelerator programme</a>

Here are a list of apps that lets you stay connected even offline - for the next time your  favourite messaging app has an outage

<ul><li>Once they cross the transformation threshold, automation will become increasingly essential to chief information officers’ quest for higher efficiency at lower costs. </li><li>Gartner’s report predicts that by 2025, 95% of all <keyword id="2723800" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-initiatives" source="Orion">digital initiatives</keyword> will be on cloud-native platforms. </li><li>The next big leverage for automation by 2025 will be its use in <keyword id="137092" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cyber-security" source="Orion">cyber security</keyword>.</li></ul> Automation, while being much maligned in B2C sectors, is fast becoming the Holy Grail of B2B enterprise technology adoption. The immediate reason is the rapid digitization that almost all verticals underwent in the last two years, which accelerated their earlier plans of digital transformation – primarily fueled by artificial intelligence (AI), automation, the <keyword id="11929101" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cloud" source="Orion">cloud</keyword>, and machine learning (ML). However, in this endeavour, as a first step, enterprises would see only a base level of automation adoption. Once they cross the transformation threshold, automation will become increasingly essential to chief information officers’ (CIOs) quest for higher efficiency at lower costs. Historically, its adoption was focused on operations and production (or manufacturing) teams. The DataOps, DevOps and CloudOps teams were the early adopters of automation to deliver on efficiency and agility, not to mention accuracy. For the next few years, the adoption of <keyword id="7114389" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cloud-platforms" source="Orion">cloud platforms</keyword> will increase manifold, to enable successful digital transformation. Gartner’s Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022: Cloud-Native Platforms report predicts that by 2025, 95 % of all digital initiatives will be on cloud-native platforms. The number will have more than doubled from 2021 (40%). This increase will be fueled by advanced IT automation solutions that will help to orchestrate and control their workloads. While this adoption increases, the next step for automation is Service Orchestration And Automation Platform (SOAP), which will take the lead in offering numerous advantages over the current workload automation solutions. SOAP will deliver the ability to automate real-time business models in the cloud, assuring business-focused digital agility and innovation. Gartner’s report predicts that these advantages will drive 80% of workload automation users to SOAP in the next 2 years. Over the next two to three years, IT tasks and jobs will also become increasingly automated, and business end-users will have to empower self-service capabilities. The next big leverage for automation by 2025 will be its use in cyber security. Hybrid work practices have pushed security risks into homes and distributed geographies. The solution over the next year would be a cybersecurity mesh - designed to reduce the financial impact of a cyber incident drastically by establishing boundaries around individual devices, instead of the network. Automation will play a critical role in this cyber-security strategy since it is impossible to establish manual security boundaries on devices. Data is the basis of all digitization, but raw data is of no value to any process. With increasing data and increasingly more complex data analytics, the ability to analyse it and convert it into actionable insights cannot be a manual process. Complex data pipelines will need resilient automation platforms to serve as what has been referred to as, meta-orchestrator automation platforms. The trend for the adoption of automation platforms for the next five years points directly to one thing- its ability to handle complex IT systems and managing the complete IT workflow from a single, centralised platform with a unified view. Beyond this, it will be hyper-automation – the ability of automation platforms to handle several disparate automation platforms that address complexities in various IT processes of the enterprise, or one ‘Boss Platform’ to rule all. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/xiaomi-oppo-and-vivo-and-other-chinese-smartphone-makers-under-investigation-nirmala-sitharaman-confirmed/articleshow/93315507.cms">Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reveals government is investigating multiple Chinese smartphone makers for tax evasion</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/cloud-migration-digital-transformation-dont-always-help-with-innovation-blockers/articleshow/93320556.cms">‘Cloud migration, digital transformation don’t always help with innovation blockers’</a>

A peek into the next level of automation

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword>'s unprovoked attack on <keyword id="11985141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ukraine" source="Orion">Ukraine</keyword> brought with it fears of large-scale cyberattacks.</li><li>But so far, Ukraine and its allies have been been able to thwart them, minimizing damage. </li></ul>The Russian government hacking group Sandworm recently attempted to attack Ukraine's power grid, according to <a href="https://www.welivesecurity.com/2022/04/12/industroyer2-industroyer-reloaded/">cybersecurity firm ESET</a> and Ukrainian officials, targeting an energy company in Russia's latest attempt to destabilize the country. The malware attack, which was revealed this week, failed to damage the system or plunge Ukraine into electrical blackouts, according to Ukrainian officials. Instead, it is part of a growing number of Russian cyberattacks that Ukraine has prevented since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in late February. Russia's unprovoked attack brought with it fears of large-scale cyberattacks in Ukraine and abroad. But what has materialized so far is something different — major attacks haven't happened, while Ukraine and its allies have been able to continuously foil the steady stream of low-level hacking attempts targeting the country. "It's less than what I think everybody predicted," said Clint Watts, a Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. "A lot of people predicted widespread destruction of infrastructure inside Ukraine." Before the invasion, President <keyword id="99719" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="joe-biden" source="Orion">Joe Biden</keyword> <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/02/18/biden-administration-goes-shields-up-protect-u-s-russian-cyber-attack/6853643001/">warned Russia </a>that the US was "prepared to respond" in the event of cyberattacks. Other government officials echoed Biden on the threat of cyberwarfare, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm sent a letter to energy companies stressing the need to prepare for potential cyberattacks. Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/21/statement-by-president-biden-on-our-nations-cybersecurity/">put out another statement</a> less than a month later on March 21 emphasizing the threat once again, calling on the private sector to "harden your cyber defenses immediately."As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, there are questions over whether such cyberattacks will become a more prominent part of the conflict. Meanwhile, experts are evaluating the gulf between what many government officials and cybersecurity researchers predicted and what has so far taken place."The sort of big splashy attacks that we were expecting to happen didn't really happen," said Allan Liska of the cybersecurity research firm Recorded Future.<h2>A slow drip of cyberattacks hasn't done much damage </h2>Ukraine has faced a number of varied attempts to undermine its cybersecurity since Russia's offensive began. There have been several "hacktivist" attacks from Russia that weren't carried out directly by the Russian government, Liska said, but were instead done by Russian citizens for "patriotic reasons."Most of these attacks so far have been DDoS attacks — denial of service attacks — where hackers target websites and services in an attempt to block users from gaining access to them. These attacks are "nuisance attacks," Liska said, and not dissimilar from those that occurred prior to the invasion.There have also been a number of "wiper" attacks, Liska added. These attempt to delete files entirely and wipe out key data, rendering the computer unusable. But these also haven't been as prominent as some experts thought."There was fear that when we started to see these wipers, they would be widely deployed across different targets from Ukraine. And they weren't," Liska said.Ukraine hasn't been able to completely protect against Russia's cyber offensive. The largest attack during the war so far was launched on the KA-SAT satellite, said Dmitri Alperovitch, the co-founder of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The satellite is owned by the US company Viasat and provides high-speed internet to people across Europe.The attack disrupted internet access for people from Poland to France, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/viasat-internet-hack-ukraine-russia/">according to a report from WIRED</a>, with some disruptions lingering for weeks.The attack on Viasat also likely had an impact on the Ukrainian military's ability to coordinate, communicate, and operate unmanned vehicles in the early days of the conflict, Alperovitch said.But Ukraine has generally increased its cyber defenses after years of being targeted in cyberwarfare, as well as received international help to disrupt Russian attacks. Earlier this month, the US announced it had quietly removed Russian malware from computer networks around the globe in an effort to preemptively quash planned cyberattacks from Moscow, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/us/politics/us-russia-malware-cyberattacks.html">The New York Times</a> reported. The malicious software was controlled by the GRU, the Russian military's intelligence agency, according to the report.Many of the attacks have likely had little impact on the war because Ukraine has spent time building up resilience and investing in security to combat these types of attacks because it has long been a "testing lab" for these types of cyberattacks from Russia, Liska told Insider. Major tech companies have also provided resources to harden Ukraine's cyberdefenses. Microsoft earlier this month <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2022/04/07/cyberattacks-ukraine-strontium-russia/">said it disrupted cyberattacks on Ukraine</a> media outlets by Strontium, a hacking group connected to Russia's GRU."Before the Russian invasion, our teams began working around the clock to help organizations in Ukraine, including government agencies, defend against an onslaught of cyberwarfare that has escalated since the invasion began and has continued relentlessly," said Tom Burt, the corporate vice president for customer security and trust at Microsoft in a press release.Another reason large attacks haven't materialized is because Russia's attack at the outset appeared to be largely uncoordinated across Russia, according to Liska."There wasn't a sort of coordination across the GRU and FSB and the other organizations that would normally carry out these more sophisticated and sustained kinds of attacks simply because they didn't know that the invasion was coming," Liska said.<h2>Cyberattacks in the US could become more likely as Russia reevaluates its strategy in Ukraine</h2>There have also been fears that major Russian cyberattacks would hit the US, especially as the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-government-painful-response-us-sanctions-2022-2">Kremlin threatens "painful" retaliation for sanctions</a> imposed by the US and its allies.Last year, several major cyberattacks linked to Russian cybercriminals impacted the US, including attacks on the meat supplier JBS and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/colonial-pipeline-ransomware-cisa-gas-crisis-agencies-hackers-2021-5">attack on the fuel supplier Colonial Pipeline</a>, which resulted in issues at gas stations across the East Coast. But attacks of the same scale haven't been seen domestically so far this year, even as Russia threatens to push back. Large cyberattacks didn't seem to mesh with Russia's initial invasion goals, experts said. "Russia was talking about occupying and ruling Ukraine," Watts said. "So, the last thing you want to do is to destroy all the cyberinfrastructure and then have to be responsible for rebuilding it." But as Moscow shifts its strategy to focus on Ukraine's eastern <keyword id="11985143" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="donbas" source="Orion">Donbas</keyword> region and retreats from the capital of Kyiv, experts told Insider it could resort to more severe cybercrime in Ukraine and elsewhere. "Now that the Russians have scaled down their aims to just taking the Donbas, they're going to need to figure out how to still extract political concessions from Zelensky in order to wrap up this war," Alperovitch said.Without the ability to threaten regime change in Ukraine, the Russian military is more likely to put pressure on Ukraine through other means, like airstrikes and cyberattacks, according to Alperovitch. These attacks could occur on Ukrainian energy companies or on <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">news</keyword> outlets as a psychological warfare tactic to make Ukraine more willing to agree to Russian demands in negotiations, he added. Attacks in the US and other Western nations are "likely to come" in the future as Russia attempts to find a favorable exit strategy in the war.The Kremlin may resort to cyberattacks as a way to strengthen its hand in any future negotiations with Ukraine and its allies, Watts said, especially if its other offensives such as the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nato-putin-still-wants-capture-ukraine-moving-russian-troops-donbas-2022-4">current operation in Donbas</a> are unsuccessful.Russia is also currently facing intense international sanctions, which Alperovitch thinks the Kremlin is mistakenly betting will subside as soon as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/videos-showing-russian-atrocities-in-ukraine-flood-social-media-2022-3">photos and videos of Russia's actions in Ukraine</a> begin to fade from social media and from news outlets. "I think they're wrong about that," Aleprovitch said. "And I think once they realize that those economic sanctions are not going away, that's when they're most likely to retaliate."

Russia's cyberattacks in Ukraine have been tame so far, but experts warn things may escalate and target the US

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The first implanted brain-computer interface has been turned on in the US.</li><li>It allows a person to control a computer using only their thoughts.</li></ul>Philip O'Keefe does a lot of things around the house these days without lifting a finger.He can turn the lights on and off in any room, pay his bills and shop online, see friends with Zoom, or play a game of solitaire or mah-jongg.And he does it all using only his brain. O'Keefe has <a href="https://www.ninds.nih.gov/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als-fact-sheet#:~:text=The%20first%20sign%20of%20ALS%20usually%20appears%20in%20the%20hand%20or%20arm%20and%20can%20show%20as%20difficulty%20with%20simple%20tasks%20such%20as%20buttoning%20a%20shirt%2C%20writing%2C%20or%20turning%20a%20key%20in%20a%20lock">amyotrophic lateral sclerosis</a>, also known as ALS, which makes it nearly impossible to use his hands to type or text. But because of a new device implanted inside the blood vessels at <a href="https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/superior-sagittal-sinus">the top of his head</a>, he can harness his thoughts to propel a computer's actions: Click, zoom in, move the mouse right, move it left. The device is called a Stentrode, and it's one of the very first implantable mind-reading <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-106118">brain-computer interfaces</a>. O'Keefe, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, is one of fewer than <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-106118">40 people worldwide</a> to have a functioning BCI device implanted into their skulls.<div type="image" title="man with brain computer interface sits at computer - hands on desk, controlling it with his mind" height="1069" width="1908" msid="95426899" hostid="261" sizebytes="72558"></div>To use his device, O'Keefe simply thinks about performing a certain movement with his body. As his brain lights up with electrical signals, the Stentrode — which is wired up in key blood vessels in O'Keefe's brain — reads his thoughts. It sends those neurological signals down a wire into his chest, where a Bluetooth transmitter about the size of a pacemaker wirelessly relays the signals from O'Keefe's brain to a computer. The computer then decodes the signal, turning the idea into a useful action, like a mouse click."Whatever you can do on a computer, I can do," O'Keefe told Insider using his BCI. "At this stage, I am a bit slower than you would be, but there is the ability to do almost anything — if I want to."O'Keefe had his Stentrode device implanted in spring 2020, thanks to Australia's relatively lax, risk-based <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/product-regulation-according-risk">regulation</a> of medical devices. The device arrived stateside this year after six years of regulatory back-and-forth between its manufacturer, a company called Synchron, and the Food and Drug Administration. On August 17, a man with ALS became the first US patient to have his Stentrode officially switched on. The man, whose identity has not been released, is unable to move his arms, move his legs, or speak normally on his own. But after a few months of training at his home near New York City, he can use his brain-computer interface to send an email saying "hi" to his caregiver or search "pharmacies" on Google. Each task takes him roughly 90 seconds.Soon, physical therapists and neuroscientists hope he'll be able to develop a skillset similar to O'Keefe's."It's not an easy task to learn — it's quite cerebral and challenging — but he's doing great," David Putrino, a longtime BCI expert who's the director of rehabilitation innovation at Mount Sinai, said.<h2>Stephen Hawking believed BCIs were the 'future of communication'</h2><div type="image" title="side by side: young stephen hawking, older stephen hawking" height="600" width="1200" msid="95426901" hostid="261" sizebytes="79890"></div>When you consider that roughly 30,000 people across the US have ALS, it's easy to see why Putrino calls this first US patient a pioneer. But he's trying out BCI tech not just for others with his condition but also for millions of <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/reeve-assets-production/RFParalysisintheUSBrief.pdf">paralyzed people</a> who've suffered strokes or been in <a href="https://www.vcuhealth.org/news/research-on-paralyzed-patients-brings-new-treatment-options-to-vcu-health">car crashes</a>, as well as those who struggle to use their hands because of diseases like Parkinson's."I believe the future of communication is brain-computer interfaces," the physicist Stephen Hawking, perhaps the most famous ALS patient, said in his <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50615313-brief-answers-to-the-big-questions">final book</a>.For now, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brain-computer-chip-link-interface-neurotech-human-trial-2022-8">reality of BCIs</a> is far more mundane, and quite slow-paced. Thomas Oxley, the CEO of Synchron, said it was like "using your smart-TV control to change your Netflix password" — one character at a time.In the decades to come, Oxley said he envisioned BCI surgery becoming more routine, with "a hundred million people" around the world using the implants to navigate conditions like arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and muscular dystrophy. As mobility wanes with the wear and tear of aging, Oxley said he imagined BCIs would be like LASIK eye surgery for communication. "It's going to help you exist in the world in a better way," he said.<div type="image" title="synchron ceo tom oxley on stage" height="745" width="994" msid="95426903" hostid="261" sizebytes="34360"></div>BCIs are supremely difficult to engineer because in addition to training the computer, technicians have to train the users to reliably employ the same thought patterns to get the computer to do exactly what they want. Each person's brain works a little differently, using slightly different neural pathways and thought processes to achieve tasks."For the next 20 or 30 years, this is about giving people back control of the digital world," Oxley said.It's a basic, "clunky" fix, Oxley said, but for the <a href="https://www.nscisc.uab.edu/Public/Facts%20and%20Figures%202020.pdf">more than 175,000 people in the US</a> who are "locked in" by spinal-cord injuries, and often unable to work as a result, this first US patient's surgery could be revolutionary.<h2>Implanting electrodes in the 'natural highways' of the brain</h2>BCIs operate by reading signals from the primary motor cortex of the brain, which controls voluntary movements. They've been around since at least the 1970s, but until the late '90s, they required users to wear large head caps and wires, making them useful only in clinical settings and labs — more of a high-tech science experiment than an assistive device. <div type="image" title="man getting bci cap fitted, cap getting conductive gel put in it" height="600" width="1200" msid="95426906" hostid="261" sizebytes="71612"></div>Implantable devices are more practical for patients to use on their own, but they come with a set of risks from the implantation process, including infection. Oxley, a neurosurgeon by training, hopes he's largely avoided that issue by using a routine, minimally invasive technique for his new implants: a small mesh tube called a stent. Stents are tiny pieces of scaffolding (in this case, made of platinum) that surgeons insert into airways, blood vessels, or blocked arteries of the body. They're often used to open up passageways in the heart or the lungs, but with Stentrodes, they allow a tiny network of electrodes to be implanted directly into people's heads via a vein in the neck."The natural highways in the brain are the blood vessels," Oxley said.Synchron's device (pictured below) uses just one wire, which travels from a pacemakerlike receiver in the chest of a patient up into key blood vessels in the brain, right next to the primary motor cortex.The billionaire business magnate Elon Musk has often talked about performing similar work in people with his company <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neuralink-elon-musk-microchips-brains-ai-2021-2">Neuralink</a>. In 2020, Musk <a href="https://youtu.be/DVvmgjBL74w?t=402">said</a> his tech for humans was going to be the "size of a large coin" and that it would "replace a piece of skull," a design that sounds riskier and more prone to infection than Synchron's, which requires no puncturing of the head.Musk had said that he hoped to start human trials of his own brain-computer-interface devices by the end of 2022, but no such trials have been announced. The only beings we know of who've tried out Neuralink's tech are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSutodqCZ74">a pig</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCul1sp4hQ&amp;feature=emb_title">a monkey</a>.<div type="image" title="elon musk neuralink " height="1465" width="1953" msid="95427164" hostid="261" sizebytes="222638"></div>In 2021, Neuralink's president, Max Hodak, left the company, and in 2022, he became an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-ex-neuralink-president-invests-rival-synchron-brain-biotech-2022-2?r=US&amp;IR=T">investor in Synchron</a>. In August, Musk reached out to Oxley about a prospective investment in Synchron, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-approaches-brain-chip-startup-synchron-about-deal-amid-neuralink-delays-2022-08-19/">Reuters</a> reported.<h2>Brain-computer interfaces for pilots, astronauts, and soldiers</h2>In addition to helping people with disabilities, it's possible BCI technology, whether implanted or worn on a cap, will have military applications. Pilots could fly using only their brains, or soldiers could keep their hands free on the battlefield to multitask. Researchers at NASA have already used BCI caps to determine when pilots may be more likely to make mistakes, which could be useful for early alarm systems. <div type="image" title="Tom Cruise in a fighter jet" height="918" width="1800" msid="95427165" hostid="261" sizebytes="54916"></div>Some regulatory agencies, like the Federal Aviation Administration, are thinking about the future of BCIs. But that means privacy, ethics, cybersecurity, and insurance policies all need to be considered in a way they haven't yet, said Karen Howard, an artificial-intelligence expert and the director of the Government Accountability Office's science, technology-assessment, and analytics division.When people think of BCIs, they imagine "science-fiction movies" and "cyborgs" that "control your brain," Howard said. That's the exact opposite of how these devices work now — the brain controls the computer. In theory, things could shift the other way. Already, bidirectional BCIs can send electrical stimulation back to the brain for rehabilitation purposes, helping paralyzed patients regain movement. Someday, it's possible the same technique could be used to treat people with seizure disorders, stroke victims, or other people with neurological issues or brain injuries, similar to what's done with <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/deep-brain-stimulation/about/pac-20384562">deep brain stimulation</a>.As technology advances, we'll have to ask difficult moral and ethical questions about the use of BCIs."Might it be possible someday for a military, perhaps, to design a device that communicates with soldiers' brains and reduces their fear level so that they'll dive into a dangerous situation?" Howard said. "If agencies wait too long to think about this, when a device becomes available, it's almost too late to start thinking about how to regulate it."<h2>A Stentrode in your head by 2050?</h2>In the coming months, Oxley hopes to include at least five more patients with severe disabilities in his <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221027005126/en/Synchron-to-Begin-Patient-Enrollment-for-the-COMMAND-Trial-of-a-Brain-Computer-Interface-at-University-of-Pittsburgh">US safety trial</a>. If that's successful, the neurosurgeon is envisioning how the same kind of system could be used as a diagnostic tool for neurological issues like Parkinson's or even as a therapeutic delivering targeted stimulation to the brain for issues like depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.When pressed, Oxley acknowledged that there could be even wider, more mainstream demand for his device someday — when "you don't want to keep picking up your phone or using your hands" to interact with the internet, he said. But it's going to take decades to get there."I reckon that's 2050 or later," he said of the prospect of BCIs for people without disabilities. "Before that happens, there's going to be, I think, millions of people getting BCIs who have severe disabilities."Even for that targeted, limited usage to become reality, the FDA needs to sign off on the Stentrode as a medical device for it to be marketed to people with severe forms of paralysis. That alone could take several more years of clinical trials.In Australia, O'Keefe's brain sends a recognizable signal out, and his device interprets it into a computer click. For him, this independence gained, however tiring and clunky, is unbeatable."There is no doubt from my perspective: Being involved in this gave me a reason to live," O'Keefe said. "It gave me back a lot more enjoyment about life and gave me things to do. It gave me the ability to stay in touch with what's going on."

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