Neurotechnology startups exploit human brain cells for AI data centers amid ethical and systemic risks
Original framing: “Start-up is building the first data centre to use human brain cells” — New Scientist
The original framing omits the colonial histories of brain research, particularly the exploitation of marginalized populations in neuroscience; the lack of informed consent frameworks for using human neural tissue; the environmental costs of data center infrastructure; and the erasure of indigenous and non-Western perspectives on the sacredness of human cognition. It also ignores the precarious labor conditions of the workers handling these materials and the long-term risks of biohybrid AI systems.
Low structural omission detected in mainstream coverage.
The narrative is produced by New Scientist, a publication historically aligned with techno-optimist framings that privilege Western scientific institutions and venture capital interests. The framing serves the agenda of Cortical Labs and its investors by legitimizing the extraction and commercialization of human neural tissue, while obscuring the labor of underpaid researchers and the ethical dilemmas of treating brain cells as proprietary assets. This aligns with broader patterns of 'neoliberal technosolutionism,' where complex biological systems are reduced to marketable commodities.
The use of human brain cells in technology echoes 20th-century eugenics and phrenology, where pseudoscience justified the exploitation of marginalized groups under the guise of 'advancement.' The 1950s-60s brain-computer interface experiments, often conducted on prisoners or psychiatric patients, set a troubling precedent for consent and coercion. The current project risks repeating these patterns by treating neural tissue as a raw material rather than a sentient entity. Historical parallels also include the industrialization of agriculture, where living organisms were reduced to inputs for profit.
The Cortical Labs project exemplifies the convergence of neoliberal technosolutionism and colonial extractivism, where the commodification of human neural tissue is framed as innovation while its ethical and ecological debts are deferred.