Ali Hasan
It doesn’t matter how Elon Musk stays in the news as long as he’s in the news. This time it’s not about Tesla or SpaceX but his other company Neuralink that is ready for some testing on humans by the end of 2021. There are 2 big news regarding Neuralink which are as follows:-
The 1st news is that they have implanted a chip in a monkey’s brain which enables him to play video games using just his mind. “We’ve already got a monkey with a wireless implant in their skull, and the tiny wires, who can play video games using his mind,” Musk said in an interview on the “Good Time Show” on the app Clubhouse on Sunday night.
“One of the things we’re trying to figure out is can we have the monkeys play mind ‘Pong’ with each other,” he said. “That would be pretty cool.” Neuralink has been testing neural interfaces on animals for years. In a video released last year, Neuralink demonstrated its work on a pig named Gertrude.
In that video, Neuralink demonstrated its ability to record and try to predict actions based on a wired chip implanted in Gertrude’s brain. But Musk said the video-game-playing monkey got a wireless chip that enabled it to control an electronic interface with its mind only. “He’s not uncomfortable, and he doesn’t look weird,” Musk said. “And you can’t even see where the neural implant went in.”
This is good news for both Elon Musk and Neuralink.
The 2nd news is that human trials could begin by the end of 2021. Musk gave the timeline in response to another user’s request to join human trials for the product, which is designed to implant artificial intelligence into human brains as well as potentially cure neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
“Neuralink is working super hard to ensure implant safety & is in close communication with the FDA,” Musk said on Twitter in response to another user’s request to join human trials. “If things go well, we might be able to do initial human trials later this year.”
The chip implants can read and write brain activity. Musk claims the brain-machine interface could do anything from cure paralysis to give people telepathic powers, referring to the device as “a Fitbit in your skull.”
Will you get yourself implanted by Neuralink if you get a chance? Do tell us in the comments. Your comments are valuable to us and we will be replying to the ones we find interesting.
