Elon Musk promised to put implants in the human brain in six months: what was the demonstration with a monkey

Tech billionaire Elon Musk He said Wednesday that one of his companies could implant a device in the human brain that would allow it to communicate with a computer within six months.

The interface, produced by Musk’s startup Neuralink, will allow users to communicate directly with computers through their thoughts, he said.

“I think we’ve given most of our documentation to the FDA[US Food and Drug Administration]and We think that in about six months we should be able to have our first Neuralink in a person– he said at the company’s presentation.

At a Neuralink presentation a year ago, the company showed several monkeys “playing” basic video games or moving a cursor on a screen through their implants. this time Demonstrated primate “writing” with mind.

“And here you can see Sake, who is one of the other monkeys typing on the keyboard. Now that’s telepathic writing. So, to be clear, you’re not using a keyboard. He moves the cursor up to the highlighted key with his mind,” Musk explained as he launched the video.

According to the demo, The animal asked for fruit.

“We’ve been working hard to be ready for our first human (implant) and obviously We want to be extremely careful and make sure it works well before we put the device on a person“, he said.

Musk — who bought Twitter last month and also owns SpaceX, Tesla and several other companies — is known for his manufacturing. Ambitious predictions about their companies and several of them did not come true.

In July 2019, he promised that Neuralink could conduct its first human trials in 2020. Coin-sized prototypes were implanted in the skulls of monkeys.

Musk said the company would try Use implants to restore vision and mobility in humans.

“Initially, we’ve enabled someone with almost no ability to control their muscles … and we’ve enabled them to operate a phone faster than someone with working hands,” he said.

“As miraculous as it may seem, we are confident that it is possible to restore full-body function to someone who has had their spinal cord severed,” he said.

In addition to the potential to treat neurological diseases, Musk’s ultimate goal is to ensure that humans are not intellectually overwhelmed by artificial intelligence, he said.

Other companies working on similar systems include Synchron, which announced in July that it had implemented the first brain-machine interface in the United States.

Musk is known for his lofty goals, such as colonizing Mars and saving humanity. His ambitions for Neuralink, which he launched in 2016, are similarly ambitious. He wants to create a chip that allows the brain to control complex electronic devices. And over time, it has enabled paralyzed people to regain motor function and cure brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, dementia and Alzheimer’s. He also talks about merging the brain with artificial intelligence.

However, Neuralink is behind schedule. Musk said at a 2019 presentation that his goal was to get regulatory approval by the end of 2020. He then said at a conference in late 2021 that he hoped to begin human trials this year.

Neuralink repeatedly missed internal deadlines to get US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to begin human trials, current and former employees said. Musk reached out to rival company Synchron earlier this year to explore investing in it after voicing his frustration with Neuralink employees over its slow pace, Reuters reported in August.

The event was originally scheduled for October 31, but Musk postponed it a few days earlier without any reason.

(According to AFP and Reuters)

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