HUMSS - Oliver Müller

AI-supported Brain-Computer Interfaces and the Emergence of "Cyberbilities"

Recent advances in brain-computer-interfacing (BCI) technology hold out the prospect of technological intervention into the basis of human agency to supplement and restore functioning in agency-limited individuals and even augmenting and enhancing capacities for natural agency. The introduction of AI-supported interfaces further accentuates ethical concerns regarding the impact of neurotechnology on human agency. We propose a normative framework for the evaluation of neurotechnologically and AI-assisted agency based on “cyberbilities”: capabilities that emerge from human-machine interactions in which agency is distributed across human and artificial elements. The central normative category of this approach is well-being and the question whether cyberbilities support or conflict with opportunities and achievements of well-being. This allows for a nuanced ethical position in which technological interventions into human agency can be evaluated against the backdrop of net-positive well-being trade-offs.