Muse maker trained AI on sleep EEG without explicit consent

Interaxon trained a brain model on about 50,000 hours of Muse EEG after policies failed to spell out that use.

A Science investigation with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network found customer neurology companies had accumulated tens of millions of hours of EEG recordings. Several used those recordings to develop brain foundation models after initially failing to spell out that use in privacy policies. Interaxon, the Canadian maker of the Muse sleep and meditation headband, said it trained a model on about 50,000 hours after removing names, email and addresses. Chief marketing officer Nadia Kumentas acknowledged users should be told, and the privacy policy now says de-identified data is used for machine learning. Researchers warn EEG can still enable re-identification, and a review of 57 brain-data companies found few explicit bans on selling that data.