[TEST MSN regional] Musk hails human implant of brain chip (cloned)
Elon Musk said his Neuralink company had implanted a wireless brain chip into a patient for the first time.
The tech billionaire hopes to connect human brains to computers and tackle complex neurological conditions with the product, called Telepathy. The aim is to allow people to use technology just by thinking. Mr Musk said: “Imagine if [late physicist] Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.”
Initial results after the operation on the unnamed patient on Sunday detected promising neuron spikes or nerve impulses and the patient was recovering well, Mr Musk added. The development is part of a six-year study, during which Neuralink said a robot was being used to surgically place 64 flexible threads, thinner than a human hair, onto a part of the brain that controls “movement intention”.
The company said these threads allow its experimental implant to record and transmit brain signals wirelessly to an app that decodes how the person intends to move. The implant is powered by a battery that can be charged wirelessly. Writing on X, which he owns, Mr Musk said Telepathy would enable “control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking”.
He added: “Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs.”
It comes less than a year after Neuralink got clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration to operate on humans. Ashlee Vance, author of a 2015 biography of Musk, said it would take a “couple of hours” for a surgeon to perform a craniectomy and a further 25 minutes for the chip to be inserted by a robot into the brain. He said: “The goal is to show that the device can safely collect useful data from that part of the patient’s brain, a key step in Neuralink’s efforts to convert a person’s thoughts into a range of commands a computer can understand.” Mr Vance, who said he had visited Neuralink’s facilities 10 times in three years, said Mr Musk had told Neuralink that it needed to pick up its pace “like the world is coming to an end”.
Experts warned that even if the device is proven to be safe, it could take more than a decade for Neuralink to secure clearance to market it. It has been criticised in the past, with Reuters reporting in December 2022 that the company engaged in testing which resulted in the deaths of about 1,500 animals, including sheep, monkeys and pigs. The US Department of Agriculture said last year it had not found any violations of animal research rules at the firm.
