Elon Musk, the CEO of companies like Tesla and the big social media platform, X (also formally known as Twitter), is accomplishing a new feat while pushing the boundaries of technology with his latest creation, Neuralink. He implemented this chip in the first human brain on January 29 and said the patient was recovering well.
Neuralink is a brain chip designed to aid cognitive abilities and treat medical issues, like traumatic brain injuries or paralysis. Each Neuralink device contains a chip and electrode arrays of more than 1,000 flexible conductors that the surgical robot threads into the cerebral cortex, which are designed to register thoughts related to motion.
Before being approved to perform surgery on a human, Elon and his team have been using monkeys and pigs since 2019 to learn more about Neuralink and how it performs, and they even demonstrated a monkey playing a video game. They have been testing on many other animals as well, such as mice and rats. However, some people have expressed concern because during the testing, they have killed over 1,500 animals, and so there is a concern about what it might do to humans.
Elon’s vision is to eventually enable computer control by thinking. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Elon wrote about the first Neuralink Product, which is named Telepathy. It can help people with medical conditions, including people who are paralyzed, so they can communicate faster and live their lives much easier. In the end, Neuralink could truly help people live more easily. While the challenges and other ethical concerns remain, the potential benefits for healthcare and human living are huge.