A recent post on the social platform X has drawn renewed attention to Cognify, a controversial artificial intelligence prison plan that would implant false memories to rehabilitate criminals.
"That honestly seems less ethical than the literal death penalty," DreamLeaf (@DreamLeaf5) wrote in an X post alongside a short video of the theoretical prison.
Cognify is a concept introduced in 2024 by molecular biologist Hashem Al-Ghaili, in which prisoners could choose to be rehabilitated in a virtual environment using artificial memories rather than being punished in prison cells, Engadget reported.
In the full demonstration video, individuals are depicted in chairs resembling those found in dental offices, receiving visual information directly into their brains. Tailored digital memories would be translated into "neurochemical information," theoretically resulting in permanent memories of experiences that never actually occurred.
According to Al-Ghaili, one of the goals is to implant the prisoner with artificial memories tailored to the victim's perspective, based on the crime committed.
Right now, technology like this does not exist. However, in 2024, Al-Ghaili claimed that experiments conducted on animals prove it would also work on humans, according to Engadget.
Al-Ghaili said Cognify could happen within a decade "if we could overcome the ethical restrictions that limit testing such technology."
Renewed interest may have come about as AI technology becomes increasingly present in daily life and seems to be developing in ways that make concepts like Cognify seem less like an episode of sci-fi TV and more possible. Concerns about the ethics of AI applications, loss of privacy, and potential negative effects on people and the environment are also growing.
The concept elicited strong feelings from X users.
"This is literally the plot of every single kind of dystopian horror cyberpunk plot," one wrote. "The idea of rewriting someone's brain, even if they are a serial killer, is so ethically messed up."
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Save $1,000 this year 💸 "Imagine all of your memories and experiences being AI slop," another said.
"There's an episode of The Outer Limits that shows why VR prisons are pure nightmare fuel," one more noted. "Me thinks people need to be reminded of it to squash this idea at the start."
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