Brain implants can now read your thoughts. Two experts debate who should control them | Summit 2026

The gist

1. Angle shows a trial participant with motor neuron disease whose silently thought words appear on screen from an implant in brain area 55b.
2. Angle says companies will keep reading higher-level thought to help stroke and aphasia patients, while Farahany warns this threatens our last space of mental privacy.
3. Angle argues people should trust a business model over leaders, saying doctor-prescribed, hospital-paid implants keep patients as the real customers.
4. Angle says speech needs about 40 bits per second, so a 2-bit wearable leaves AI filling in 38 bits, which is why he favors high data rates.
5. Farahany says relying on AI can erode our own thinking, and she advocates cognitive liberty, a right to self-determination over your own brain and mental experiences.