--- title: "There May Be Downsides Now That Mark Zuckerberg Can Read Your Thoughts With a Scanning Device" description: "A recent breakthrough by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has new implications for the billionaire's neural technology." date: "2025-02-21" modified: "2025-02-21" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/zuckerberg-meta-brain-downsides" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "brain interface" - "mark zuckerberg" - "Meta" - "the digest" --- # There May Be Downsides Now That Mark Zuckerberg Can Read Your Thoughts With a Scanning Device ![A recent breakthrough by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has new implications for the billionaire's neural technology.]() *\Image: Chris Unger / Zuffa LLC via Getty / Futurism\* A lot of ink has been spilled about Elon Musk's rapidly developing [brain implant startup Neuralink](), owing in no small part to the [kind of hype]() the billionaire's able to drum up around his companies. But Neuralink, like its founder, has a little brother: Mark Zuckerberg's Meta — formerly Facebook — which is starting to look like the tortoise to Musk's hare. Since 2016, Meta's [brain-interface technology]() has developed steadily along two paths: one, a module allowing subjects to "[hear with their skin]()," and the other a "[silent speech system]()" meant to help users communicate with just their brains. A wearable headband building on the latter venture was [scuttled]() a few years ago, though Meta-backed [academic research]() into brainwave communication quietly continued while the Neuralink circus raged. Now, Meta says it's taken a huge step forward. For the first time, the company's researchers say they've been able to train an AI model to [decode brain waves]() with up to 80 percent accuracy in laboratory settings. Basically, the company was able to record the tiny [magnetic fields generated by natural electrical currents]() in the brain so that human subjects could "type" with their minds. Those sentences were then cross referenced with an AI model's readout of the magnetic fields, which were pretty faithful to the original, give or take a few typos. The mindreading breakthrough is cool in the abstract. But as *Vox* Future Perfect Fellow Celia Ford [points out](), we'll soon need to grapple with what it means for Meta to be the tech's gatekeeper — and for a notoriously invasive tech corporation to have access, at least in theory, to the data tucked away in our brains. Unfortunately, there are plenty of reasons to worry. As a data broker, Meta has been a historically bad actor. In 2018, a [massive *New York Times* investigation]() revealed that Meta, then Facebook, was trading user data with third-party companies, mainly other big tech firms. Though it was caught sharing users' full names and contact info, Meta [defended]() its actions, saying the data transfer allowed people to have "more social experiences." Six years later, it was revealed that Meta had been [waging a corporate espionage campaign]() to decrypt user traffic from Snapchat, YouTube, and Amazon. That project ran from 2016 to 2019, and the company vehemently denied it until federal court records revealed that Zuckerberg himself [launched the effort](). Then there was the infamous [NSA scandal]() in 2013, where it was revealed that Meta, along with the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, were [actively involved]() in the government collection of private user data. That scandal paled in comparison to the [Cambridge Analytica debacle](), when data harvested and held by Meta was accessed by third-party actors and sold to foreign agents. Meta's AI practices are likewise mired in controversy. Though at one time the company prohibited its AI model's use in military applications, it [walked that pledge back]() in late 2024 before partnering to provide AI to a handful of national security administrations and weapons contractors, like the infamous [Lockheed Martin](). Its also fed user posts — dating back to 2007 — to its [data-hungry AI model](), a practice which most users around the world were unable to opt out of. So as Meta inches closer to being the mind reader of the future, it's important to remember its track record as the media platform of the past. As it stands, the for-profit tech giant has a lot to prove before we let it loose on our very thoughts — the last [truly private]() domain. **More on Zuckerberg:** [*Zuckerberg Announces Plans to Automate Facebook Coding Jobs With AI*]() ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()