A scientist has unveiled what is being called the "Prison of the Future", and it involves inserting an AI implant in a prisoner's head that shows them artificial memories of the crimes they have committed, but from the perspective of their victim.
A proposal video of the virtual justice system, or neurological prison, was posted to Hashem Al-Ghaili's YouTube and Instagram account, who is a molecular biologist and science communicator. The video explains how the virtual prison would theoretically work, which Al-Ghaili is calling Cognify. In a nutshell, prisoners would be subjected to 10 minutes of intense AI-generated content that would be injected into the brain, DNA, and RNA - targeting each part linked to memory formation.
The content shown to the prisoner would be designed to invoke emotional states such as remorse or regret while also enabling the prisoner to experience what the crime is like from the perspective of the victim. The rehabilitation technique would only last several minutes, but to the prisoner, it would likely feel much longer, potentially even years. Not only will the prisoner visually experience the perspective of their victim, but they will also get a physical response that translates to the pain suffered by their victim. These memories are "designed to trigger consequences and trauma," the video added.
"Such memories could simulate the long-term consequences of violent actions, such as the grief of the victim's family or the physical and emotional trauma endured by the victim."
At the moment, the technology for these virtual prisons doesn't exist, and Cognify is only a proposal, but the very same work is already taking place in animals, not to mention accessibility-specific brain-computer interfaces from Elon Musk's company Neuralink.
"These complex, vivid and life-like memories are created in real-time using AI-generated content."
Al-Ghaili recognizes the ethical implications of such technology, saying those problems would need to be overcome before such a technology can become a reality.
"If we could overcome the ethical restrictions that limit testing such technology."