Jeff Chiu/AP
It’s no surprise that wunderkinds want their children to be wunderkinds, too.
As Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old founder of Scale AI, prepares to take on a new role at Meta leading its superintelligence initiatives, he’s also thinking about how to integrate superintelligence into the next generation.
And that means he’s not having kids anytime soon.
On the Shawn Ryan Show on Thursday, Wang said he wants to wait to have kids until Neuralink or other brain-computer interfaces are available.
Neuralink, one of Elon Musk‘s most futuristic endeavors, is developing coin-sized microchips that can be embedded into human brains. These chips will not only be able to record brain activity, but also stimulate it.
Still in clinical trials, Neuralink has so far been embedded in three patients. One of those patients, Brad Smith, who has ALS, said he was able to edit a video using his Neuralink brain chip.
While Neuralink has received a ton of buzz, it’s not the only one developing these interfaces. Synchron, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is already working with Apple to help those with disabilities, like ALS patients, use their iPhones. Motif Neurotech is developing a neurostimulator system that works like a pacemaker for the brain and is now used for treating severe depression.
Wang also believes these devices will have profound implications for child development. “In your first like seven years of life, your brain is more neuroplastic than at any other point in your life,” he said. “When we get Neuralink and we get these other technologies, kids who are born with them are gonna learn how to use them in like crazy, crazy ways.”
Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to adapt and change — whether that means rewiring its structure, shifting how it functions, or forming new connections — in response to things happening inside us or around us.
It’s often enhanced in children because the “organization of networks of neuronal synapses as well as white matter pathways remain ‘under construction’ well into adolescence and even later,” according to a 2009 article published in the journal Brain Dev. This is why children are also able to learn new skills quickly and recover from injuries faster.
Wang’s theory is that early adoption of brain-computer interfaces will allow children to leverage them in ways that adults can’t.
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