The Mind Under Control – Session 2

How AI and Neurotechnology Are Transforming the Workplace

Can your employer access your cognitive and emotional states? Is consent still real, or is control simply disguised as care?

The Mind Under Control is a three-part online conversation series, presented through a partnership between The AI Collective and The Centre for Neurology and Law — an international research hub dedicated to understanding the interaction between neural technologies, legal frameworks, and human rights (www.neurotechlaw.com).

This second session focuses on the workplace, where AI-driven systems and neurotechnologies are increasingly introduced under the promise of improving productivity, focus, safety, and employee “cognitive wellness.” Employers are showing growing interest in measuring attention, fatigue, emotional states, and mental performance through biometric, behavioral, and neural signals.

Recent legal action against the neurotechnology company Emotiv in Chile has raised urgent questions about these practices. Marketed as wellness or self-optimization tools, some of these technologies may in fact function as medical-grade monitoring devices, blurring the line between voluntary self-tracking and invisible coercion.

This session examines how AI and neurotechnologies at work risk transforming employees into continuous sources of cognitive data, reinforcing power asymmetries and challenging the very notion of free and informed consent. It also explores whether new legal protections, such as an emerging right to mental disconnection, are needed to safeguard workers’ cognitive autonomy.

Key topics

AI and neuro-surveillance in the workplace
The Emotiv case in Chile and its legal implications
Medical-grade technologies disguised as “wellness devices”
Cognitive monitoring, performance scoring, and evaluation
Neuro-discrimination in recruitment and employment
Consent under hierarchical pressure
The emerging right to mental disconnection

Speakers

Dr. Karen Herrera-Ferrá is a physician with a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, a PhD in Bioethics, and a Postdoctorate in Neuroethics. She has extensive experience in clinical mental health and is an independent researcher, academic, and international advisor in bioethics and neuroethics. Dr. Herrera-Ferrá has represented Mexico in international neuroscience and neuroethics initiatives across Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is the founder and former president of the Mexican Association of Neuroethics and has served in advisory roles for the Mexican Senate’s Neurorights Group, the National Alliance of Artificial Intelligence (ANIA), McGill University, Georgetown University Medical Center, and the University of Chile. Her work focuses on the ethical, legal, social, and human rights implications of neuroscience, neurotechnology, and artificial intelligence.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-herrera-ferr%C3%A1-354807164/

Carlos Amunátegui Perelló is a tenured Professor of Law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a PhD in Patrimonial Law from Pompeu Fabra University. He is a leading legal scholar with over 150 scientific publications and seven monographs on Roman law, civil law, legal theory, and emerging technologies. Professor Amunátegui has been a visiting professor at Osaka University and Columbia University and played a key role in the constitutional reform that introduced Neurorights into the Chilean Constitution and the corresponding legislation.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-amun%C3%A1tegui-perell%C3%B3-6840121ab/

Facilitator and Series Curator

Ana Catarina de Alencar is an international lawyer and ethicist based in Paris, working at the intersection of AI governance, law, and emerging technologies. She is a PhD researcher at the Université de Lille, where her interdisciplinary research focuses on emotional AI from legal and neurobiological perspectives. Ana holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and Technology of Law, is the author of Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Law (2022), and has taught courses on political philosophy, digital rights, GDPR, and AI regulation. She is a member of Open Ethics AI and Women in AI Governance, and serves as Resident Philosopher at The AI Collective.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-catarina-de-alencar-6b022990/

📅 April 27
🕔 5:00 PM (Paris Time)
🕔 4:00 PM (London Time)
🌐 Online | 60 minutes

This session is designed for legal professionals, HR leaders, policymakers, researchers, technologists, union representatives, and anyone interested in AI, workers’ rights, and the future of work.

The AI Collective is a global non-profit community uniting 100,000+ pioneers – founders, researchers, operators, and investors – exploring the frontier of AI in major tech hubs worldwide. Through events, workshops, and community-led research, we empower the AI ecosystem to collaboratively steer AI’s future toward trust, openness, and human flourishing.

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