Science for Capital — what brain machine interfaces open up beyond AI

What was discussed

The session discussed the current state of technology connecting the brain and machines, and the handling of data and rights needed for practical use. It classified brain signal measurement by degree of invasiveness to the body and introduced examples of reconstructing text, images, and handwritten characters. While improving accuracy requires long-duration brain data from multiple people, the absence of a foundation for training and the treatment of such data as personal information were raised as challenges. A future in which the brain is connected directly to AI was contrasted with a future in which AI learns human values unknown to us, and the role of drawing out human potential was discussed.

About this session

How far has the brain-machine interface come? To this plainly asked question we hear about where BMI stands and where it is going, from a front line that takes part in an international BMI consortium and is launching a new neuroscience industry consortium in Japan.

Speakers

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  Soichi Tajima

  DiscussantGenesia Ventures　Representative Director / General Partner

  After graduating in engineering from Osaka University he spent about eight years at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in debt finance — consumer lending, corporate lending, syndication and securitisation. Following CyberAgent he led domestic and overseas investment and investment strategy at the group's venture capital arm, serving as its representative director from 2010. He founded Genesia Ventures in 2016, and has chaired the Japan Venture Capital Association since July 2023.

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  Kan Akutsu

  Araya Inc.　Head of Research and Development / Leader, MultiSense Foundation team

  He took a master's in information science and technology at the University of Tokyo in 2012. He worked on planning and building social games at DeNA and on HR and product development at ZEALS. In June 2023 he joined Araya, where he builds the development platform for brain-machine interfaces. In the Kanai project under Moonshot Goal 1 he leads work on shared platform technology, developing BMIs that integrate multiple biosignals including EEG and EMG.

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  Teruyoshi Sumiya

  ModeratorPnika　Design Researcher

  From Higashimurayama, Tokyo. He served with the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and worked on open innovation at a nonprofit. At Keio University's Graduate School of System Design and Management he researched multi-stakeholder rulemaking and earned a master's degree. He went on to advance agile governance — an open, self-organising form of governance — through his own organisation and at the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan. Since encountering the anthropologist Arturo Escobar's idea of the pluriverse, he has explored new ways of relating to nature and plural forms of governance, with care and multispecies thinking as his keywords.