Elon Musk’s Neuralink could be implanted in human brains this year

Elon Musk's Neuralink could be implanted in homo brains this year

(Epitome credit: Shutterstock)

Elon Musk'south encephalon-computer interface company, Neuralink, is gearing upwardly to implant a chip into a man encephalon — and it could be ready within the year.

It follows a viral video of a monkey fitted with the brain tech, using simply its mind to play Pong. Neuralink is now eyeing up a leap to human being trials, signaling either a boundary-not bad step towards bogus intelligence being implanted into human minds, or peradventure a pilus-raising glimpse behind the curtain of possibility.

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Launched in 2016, Neuralink is another cord to the Space X billionaire'due south all-encompassing bow of businesses, focused on creating devices that can be embedded into the human being heed.

There's much mystery virtually how the technology actually works, with Yahoo News reporting that the startup is working on "flexible threads, thinner than human hair, designed to be implanted into the brain to read brain activity."

How-do-you-do @elonmusk, I've been thinking for a long fourth dimension how to write this to you - but I'll continue information technology very merely:I was in a car accident 20 years agone and have been paralyzed from the shoulders ever since. I'm always available for clinical studies at @Neuralink.Please get in bear on!January 31, 2021

Either mode, it's pretty damn absurd. It could also arrive sooner than expected, with Musk taking to Twitter to fan the flames of anticipation by responding to a man left paralyzed in an accident, who asked when the brain implants could get bachelor to humans.

Musk responded: "Neuralink is working super hard to ensure implant safety & is in close communication with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). If things get well, we might be able to exercise initial human trials after this year."

Clearly, Musk'due south comments should be taken with a sizable compression of table salt; however, it teases many exciting avenues of what the technology could reach. In the past, Musk has proper name-checked Alzheimer'southward and Parkinson's as 2 such neurological disorders that could benefit from Neuralink'south work.

The Oxford Student last year reported that Neuralink delivers a "sort of symbiosis with artificial intelligence" that can significantly preserve and raise our brains. Ultimately, the technology could see humans merge with artificial intelligence.

But it's still very early on days and it's ever a good thought to exist cognizant of Mr. Musk and his Twitter outpours, where it's sometimes difficult to separate fact from hype, and the timelines of aggressive projects that demand to jump through several hoops before clearance tin happen.

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Luke is a Trainee News Writer at T3 and correspondent to Tom'southward Guide, having graduated from the DMU/Channel 4 Journalism School with an MA in Investigative Journalism. Earlier switching careers, he worked for Mindshare WW. When not indoors messing around with gadgets, he's a disc golf enthusiast, nifty jogger, and fond of all things outdoors.