Why BCIs Fail Series

📞 On Oct 6th 2016, I was recruited by Sam Teller and Elon Musk to help co-found (#7 of 8) what would become one of the most talked-about brain-computer interface companies in the world. I said no, NOT because the mission wasn't important, but because I believed the most critical problems weren't being solved (he had to replace me w/ 2 other people). The companies building brain implants are extraordinarily capable. The engineering is remarkable. But there's a reason these devices stop working, and it’s not just about the electronics.

It has to do with biology.

🧠 Brain-computer interfaces, devices that translate brain signals into commands for computers, robotic limbs, or communication systems, have already changed lives. People with paralysis have controlled robotic arms, typed messages with their thoughts, and felt sensations through prosthetic hands. The technology works. The problem is that it stops working, usually within months to years of implantation, and nobody outside of a small corner of academic research is talking honestly about why.

🔬 I've spent the better part of 20 years studying exactly that question. My lab at the University of Pittsburgh uses live brain imaging, electrophysiology, and molecular tools to watch what happens to brain tissue around implanted electrodes, in real time, at the level of individual cells. What we've found has repeatedly surprised us, and it has repeatedly contradicted assumptions the field has held for decades.

🍰 I want to share what we’ve learned, what we know, what we don't know, what we thought we knew but didn’t, and what it will actually take to build brain implants that last.

🚫 Over the next few weeks, I'll walk through the main reasons BCIs fail. Some are mechanical. Some are biological. Some are conceptual. The way we've been thinking about the problem has been incomplete. I'll try to be honest about uncertainty and direct about implications.

🤖 If you build neurotechnology, fund it, regulate it, or depend on it, this is for you. And if you're simply curious about how the brain responds when we try to interface with it, I hope you find this useful.

https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adfm.201701269

https://www.bioniclab.org/

Or you can follow the series on substack: https://bioniclab.substack.com