Somaform's Neural Interface Stays Under Review

GENEVA — Five days before Brazil weighs public support for human enhancement, the neural-interface line that has come to symbolize the debate is exactly where it has been all year: under review, and unresolved. Regulators examining Somaform Augmetics' flagship interface have neither cleared it nor pulled it, and the manufacturer continues to sell it while the file stays open. "An open review is not a verdict, and we ask the public not to read one into it," said Dr. Priya Venkataraman, an independent augmentation-safety scientist unaffiliated with the firm. Founder Julian Morrow, a longtime augmentation-rights advocate, maintains the device is safe and the scrutiny political; clinicians who fit the implants say the truth is simply unfinished — the long-term data are not yet in. Roughly five percent of humans are augmented, a share that climbs each year. The review continues into the fall. Nobody, on the record, will call it closed.