The well-known multi-billionaire Elon Musk also runs the electric car manufacturer Tesla, Space X, Starlink, and, more recently, the social network Twitter. At an event called “Show and Tell”, which took place in the US, Elon Musk announced that his company Neuralink could implant its chip in a person’s head within the next six months.
Neuralink’s goal is to create a device that can be implanted in the brain and used to control a computer or phone using brain activity. The businessman also reports that with the help of Neuralink chips, people with disabilities will be able to move and communicate. Musk also claims that the chips can help restore vision.
Musk noted that the company has already sent most of the documents necessary for such studies to regulatory authorities. Previously, in recent years, the company has been conducting animal trials to gain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin human clinical trials
“We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human,” Musk said during the presentation. The broadcast was carried out on the Neuralink YouTube channel.
In 2020, the device was implanted in pigs, and last year, Neuralink showed a video of a monkey playing a simple game of Pong using an implanted chip. In Elon’s recent presentation, videos of the monkeys were shown again: in the video demonstration, one of the monkeys was able to “type” the phrase “Welcome to show and tell” using its implant.
Elon also stated at the presentation that he would have implanted himself in his brain “in fact, in one of these demos, I will.” He also confirmed this statement on his Twitter.
References:
