- Elon Musk’s brain chip company Neuralink has begun implanting its devices in humans.
- Neuralink’s initial goal is to treat neurological conditions such as paralysis and blindness.
- But Musk has expressed deeper ambitions to use implants to fuse humans and AI.
Elon Musk’s secretive and futuristic brain chip company Neuralink has begun implanting its devices into human skulls. Like many of Musk’s ventures, the new technology was met with both fanfare and skepticism.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Neuralink approval to begin testing the implant in humans in 2023. The company inserted the chip into its first human patient in January 2024, and Musk said early results showed “promising detection of neuronal spikes.”
Musk, who also runs companies such as Tesla and SpaceX, announced his first product, which he called Telepathy, would allow humans to control phones and computers “just by thinking.”
What does Neuralink’s brain chip do?
Musk and Neuralink have publicly touted various goals for implantable devices, some aimed at the near future and others with longer-term ambitions.
Neuralink’s current priority is treating patients with neurological conditions such as paralysis and blindness. Initially, his goal for Neuralink in its first human trials is to allow patients with paralyzed limbs to control devices such as computer mice and keyboards using just their thoughts.
Musk has reported some success on this front, saying that in February 2024, Neuralink’s first human patient was able to move a mouse cursor around the screen. Musk said his next short-term goal is to help patients keep pushing the buttons in their minds.
In the future, Neuralink aims to restore full mobility to paralyzed patients and restore vision to blind or visually impaired patients.
“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or an auctioneer. That’s the goal,” Musk said in January 2024.
But Musk’s ambitions extend beyond just treating medical conditions. Much like his space exploration company SpaceX, Musk’s ambitions for Neuralink are to break the frontiers of technology.
Musk said he ultimately wants Neuralink to help humans achieve “symbiosis” with artificial intelligence so that humans are “not left behind” as AI evolves over time.
“Longer term, Neuralink hopes to play a role in mitigating AI risk civilization by improving human-to-AI (and human-to-human) bandwidth by orders of magnitude,” Musk said. said on X (formerly known as Twitter) in 2023.
Musk also proposed ideas such as calling the device a “Fitbit in the skull” and allowing people to store and play back memories.
“The future is going to be weird,” Musk told an audience in 2020.
Who can get Neuralink?
Neuralink began recruiting prospective patients in late 2023, shortly after receiving clearance from the FDA for human trials. Immediately, thousands of people expressed interest in his Neuralink brain implant surgery.
However, Neuralink’s application comes with an eligibility screening feature and not just anyone can sign up. Patients must be a legal adult, must hold U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, and must have one of the following conditions: “quadriplegia, paraplegia, Visual impairment or blindness, aphasia or inability to speak, hearing loss or impairment of hearing, and/or major limb amputation (affecting above or below the elbow and/or above or below the knee).”
Neuralink said it is specifically looking for individuals with quadriplegia who are at least 22 years old and have a “consistent and reliable caregiver.” The company also excluded people with active implanted devices such as pacemakers, ongoing symptoms requiring an MRI, or a history of seizures.
Applicants selected to participate in Neuralink’s clinical trial will be required to participate in primary research over approximately 18 months, including nine home and in-person visits and two one-hour research sessions per week. there is. The trial will also include long-term follow-up for five years.
How ethical is Neuralink?
Like several of Mr. Musk’s companies, Neuralink is under ethical scrutiny, both for its existing research practices and for potential moral difficulties that may develop in the future as technology advances. It’s dark.
Critics have frequently criticized Neuralink’s disappointing human clinical trials. Musk initially promised in 2019 that human trials would begin the following year, but the brain chip was not administered to the first patient until 2024.
Neuralink’s animal testing practices have been a hot topic in recent years. In 2022, animal rights groups revealed that the monkeys used in Neuralink’s research suffered “extreme suffering as a result of inadequate animal management and highly invasive experimental head implants during experiments.” We obtained more than 700 pages of public records showing this.
Neuralink denies claims that the monkeys are abused, saying in a statement that the company is “committed to treating animals in the most humane and ethical manner possible.” Musk later said his lab monkeys live in a “monkey paradise.”
The FDA initially rejected Neuralink’s proposal to start human trials, citing concerns that the implant could overheat, move around in the brain, and even damage brain tissue. Neuralink clearly addressed those concerns. However, this is because the FDA approved his Neuralink’s first human clinical trial in the spring of 2023.
What risks are there with Neuralink?
In addition to the typical risks of neurosurgery, scientists are also wondering about the unintended consequences that merging the human brain and computer may have.
In recent years, the very concept of brain chips has come under ethical scrutiny. Neuralink isn’t the only company building and testing so-called brain-computer interfaces, devices that allow brains to communicate with computers. Researchers have found both advantages and disadvantages for patients who undergo BCI for medical purposes. .
The researchers found that while many patients undoubtedly benefited from the technology, others experienced feelings of not being able to recognize themselves or losing their sense of self, a phenomenon known as “alienation.” It is reported that.
Bridging the gap between computers and the human brain also raises ethical questions regarding privacy and security. Experts speculate that computers could access, decode and store brain activity, making that data vulnerable to hackers.
But Mr. Musk seems largely unconcerned, repeatedly promising to have a Neuralink device implanted in his brain.
How successful has the Neuralink port been?
Although Neuralink’s brain chip has only been implanted in one human yet, the company has tested it on numerous pigs and monkeys.
In 2020, Neuralink revealed that it had implanted a chip into the skull of a pig named Gertrude. The company released footage showing that the chip can record neural activity and accurately predict the position of a pig’s limbs as it walks on a treadmill.
In 2021, Neuralink released further footage showing monkeys playing video games with their heads. Neuroscientists were unimpressed, telling Business Insider that Neuralink was by no means the first attempt. Scientists have been using neural interfaces since 2002 to allow a monkey to control his cursor on a computer.
