“The first person received a Neuralink implant yesterday and is recovering well.” That text sent tech billionaire Elon Musk launched into the world on his social medium X on Monday. “The first results show promising detection of nerve activity.”
Musk does not provide more information about the operation, other than the name of the device, Telepathy. Photos, figures or scientific papers are missing. Some skepticism is therefore obvious, if only because of the exaggerated claims that Musk has made previously. For example, the entrepreneur recently talked about a “new high” of users on X, while news site Business Insider with numbers showed the opposite.
Musk is more outspoken about Neuralink's ambitions. As the name suggests, the implant should allow users to wirelessly control electronics with their thoughts. “It makes it possible to control your phone or computer, and therefore almost any device, just by thinking,” Musk tweets. “The first users will be people who can no longer use their limbs.”
A thousand channels
It is certainly not a new idea, says Nick Ramsey, brain researcher at UMC Utrecht. In 2015, he was the first in the world to install a working wireless brain implant in someone. “That was with four channels that measure brain signals. With Musk there are a thousand.” The question is how much those thousand channels benefit someone, says Ramsey. “In California, someone with two hundred channels could already reach almost normal speed to talk.”
“More important is the robot that Neuralink uses to place the implants,” says Ramsey. This robot can be seen on the Neuralink website: a rounded, white object with a tiny needle sticking out of it. The wires of the chips are said to be so fine that they cannot be placed by hand. Ramsey sees an additional benefit in it: “With such a machine you can run mass production.”
Symbiosis
Musk's ambition extends far beyond helping paralyzed patients. The CEO sees his brain chip as the next step in the development of humanity. In fact, “In the long term, Neuralink hopes to play a role in reducing the risk of artificial intelligence (AI) to society,” tweeted him in September. Musk sees AI as an existential threat and seems to believe that merging with technology is the only way out. According to tech sites he talks about a “symbiosis with AI”.
In addition to the operation of the implant, Neuralink also wants to investigate whether the chip and the robot surgeon are safe with the first tests. Patients who want to participate can still register.
With the cooperation of Niki Korteweg.
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