The first human to receive an implant from Elon Musk’s secretive brain chip company Neuralink is “recovering well,” the billionaire announced on his social media site X (formerly Twitter) Monday evening.
The procedure took place Sunday, less than a year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration greenlit the company to proceed with human trials — a major leap forward for the brain-computer interface technology that Musk claims will eventually allow us to control a computer or mobile device through thought alone.
Here’s what you need to know.
First human received brain implant from Neuralink
Neuralink was approved to begin its in-human clinical studies last year, , following a previous rejection from the FDA — which cited dozens of issues primarily concerning patient safety, .
Months later in September, Neuralink launched its human PRIME study (which stands for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface).
The study, which only accepts certain people with quadriplegia, saw the coin-sized device implanted in patients’ skulls by a surgical robot. Connected to the device are 64 “threads” thinner than a human hair, which burrow deeper into the organ to pick up on brain signals.
When in place, the implant would be “cosmetically invisible” and will allow for the recording and transmission of brain signals to an app, . This app would then process and relay the signals to a computer or phone, with the initial goal of enabling patients to move a mouse or use a keyboard just by thinking it.
“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk wrote on X Monday when announcing the first in-human implant.Â
The PRIME study is set to run over a period of six years, with experts following up and monitoring patients for the last five years to ensure the device “continues to work as intended.” As such, it will likely be years before Neuralink’s first products hit shelves.
Neuralink’s first product announced
That hasn’t stopped Musk from announcing Neuralink’s first product anyway, revealing it will be named “Telepathy.”
The device would reportedly enable one to control their phone or computer, “and through them almost any device, just by thinking.”
“Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs,” . “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.”
He did not provide any timeline on when the product might be available.
±õ²ÔÌýNeuralink’s previous presentations, the companies demonstrated the technology working in monkeys, which were able to move a mouse and “type” out words on a screen using their thoughts alone.
”(It’s like) we’re replacing a piece of skull with a smartwatch,” Musk said at the time, continuing that “we’re confident we can restore full body functionality to someone with a severed spinal cord.”
Neuralink controversies
Neuralink is not without its controversies. In 2022, animal rights group the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a 700 page letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging researchers committed animal abuse and caused “extreme suffering” in their monkey test subjects during their partnership with UC Davis.
At least a dozen monkeys have died over the course of Neuralink’s experiments, although Musk has claimed his company was not directly responsible for any of them — alleging its early experiments , and that they’d died of other causes.
. Veterinary records from UC Davis viewed by the outlet reportedly documented complications developed after electrodes were surgically implanted within the monkeys’ brains, including bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis and cerebral edema — also known as “brain swelling.”
, Neurolink’s experiments are allegedly responsible for the deaths of 1,500 animals in total between 2018 and the end of 2022, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys.
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