The first human implant by Neuralink, a firm Elon Musk launched in 2017 to implant electrodes into people’s brains, has been accomplished. Musk used his X Twitter to announce this on Monday. He claims that Telepathy is the original Neuralink product.
According to Musk, the Neuralink implant would allow users to operate nearly any gadget, including computers and phones, with just their thoughts. Neuralink is a technological advancement that draws upon decades of research into implanting electrodes in the human brain to interpret impulses and treat disorders like Parkinson’s disease, paralysis, and epilepsy.
The Utah array is an early device shown off in a human in 2004. Numerous rivals, such as Synchron and Precision Neuroscience, have joined the market. The Neuralink gadget has far more electrodes than other implants—over 1,000 total. While many other devices under development target signals from groups of neurons, this one targets individual neurons. If successful, this ought to make more precision possible.
The implant inserts a chip and other devices inside the user’s skull with wireless connections. A Neuralink app then decodes the data from brain signals into actions and intents. Wireless charging is also an option. A customised surgical robot made by Neuralink will carry out the implant process.
Neuralink’s initial goal is to assist those who are paralysed. Musk claims that, eventually, his invention might benefit those who are blind or have hearing impairments. The billionaire expressed his optimism that the implant will ultimately enable futuristic objectives like assisting humans in fusing with artificial intelligence.
After a series of implant tests on different animals, Neuralink was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for clinical trials on humans in May of last year. Organisations like the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine harshly criticised the business for its surgical work on animals, especially primates, claiming that Neuralink performed many of those procedures incorrectly.
