Graeme Moffat

These remarks were delivered to the OECD Working Group on Emerging Technologies Minding Neurotechnology Workshop, in Shanghai, China, September 6, 2018. This workshop led to the OECD policy on Responsible Innovation in Neurotechnology.

Graeme Moffat, Chief Scientist & VP Regulatory Affairs, Muse (Interaxon); Senior Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy (University of Toronto)

I would like to thank the OECD for inviting some representatives of the neurotechnology industry here to speak. I’m Graeme Moffat. I’m the Chief Scientist with Muse, as well as a Senior Fellow with the Munk School of Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

Muse is a success story of Canadian and Chinese collaboration on neurotechnology, between our partners in Xiamen and our head office in Toronto. This is a story of global integration in neurotechnology, with Canadian and Chinese engineering serving the world’s largest two markets of the USA and the EU. I am encouraged by the presence of representatives of industry at this conference; often, the people building and innovating on neurotechnology occasionally read reports of workshops attended by only academic philosophers and occasionally academic neuroscientists. There is an enormous disconnect between the practice of neurotechnology and the hypothetical ethical concerns raised in academic workshops on neuroethics, and that gap is wide and filled with misconceptions at best – and science fiction at worst. 

At Muse, we make neurotechnology for consumers and for brain health. Muse itself is the most widely adopted consumer neurotechnology in the world by about an order of magnitude, if not more. What is it? Muse is a biosignal system that incorporates electroencephalography and other sensors in a portable and wearable form factor. We believe that we became the biggest by focusing on delivering real and persistent value to people who use our technology. Our users, we believe, should encounter a human-centered technology experience, and it should empower them to lead happier and healthier lives. Our belief is that neurotechnology should be designed and built from the user outward, to solve a real problem for a real person, in a way that person can understand.

Continue reading “What should be the priorities of the neurotechnology sector?”

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