Brain Implants Are Here — And Getting Better

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are surgically implanted devices that link the brain to a computer. They can be helpful for people who’ve lost the ability to move or speak.

And they’re making progress. New generations of BCIs could go as far as to detect a person’s inner monologue.

But that progress is raising questions about the future privacy of our brains, and has some scientists asking, “What happens when you want to keep some things to yourself?”

NPR brain correspondent Jon Hamilton talks to Short Wave’s Emily Kwong about the future of BCIs.

Read more of Jon’s reporting on brain implants.

Interested in more on the future of brain science? Email us your question at [email protected] – we may feature it in an upcoming episode!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:15.7	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:20.6	Hey, Shortwaivers, Emily Kwong here.
0:22.8	If you're listening to this, you know this podcast has to travel through your ears to get
0:27.2	to your brain.
0:28.1	But why not take a more direct route, say from the internet straight to your neurons?
0:33.2	That's basically what we're talking about today, brain computer interfaces with NPR's
0:37.3	own neuromancer, John Hamilton.
0:40.0	Hi, John.
0:40.7	Hey, Emily.
0:41.5	Happy to be part of today's consensual hallucination, as William Gibson would put it.
0:46.9	And with that, I guess we should probably stop with the dystopian sci-fi references.
0:50.9	Let's keep them coming, John.
0:52.1	I mean, Elon Musk is out here talking about
0:54.8	using a brain computer interface, a BCI, to connect us all to cyberspace, right? I mean, he has
0:59.9	mentioned that. And his company, Neurrelink, has surgically implanted its brain computer interfaces,
1:05.6	which we will call BSIs for short, in a whole bunch of people. Oh, and the neuralink device, it's called telepathy.
1:13.4	So I'm right. The future is here.
1:16.1	You are certainly right about what one tech billionaire is saying, but I am here to tell you that these interfaces are still a long way from putting our brain cells online.
1:26.2	What they can do is pretty amazing.
	...

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