Tech entrepreneur and Billionaire Elon Musk has disclosed that his neurotechnology company which is developing implantable brain-computer interfaces, Neuralink, has successfully implanted a Brain chip in the first human.
Musk made this known via a post on his X handle, in which he wrote,
“The first human received an implant from Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well. Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.”
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The announcement comes several months after the company last year May, was given a green light by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for its first-in-human clinical trial, which was a critical milestone for the company after it struggled to gain approval.
The trial was part of Neuralink “PRIME Study,” short for “Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface,” which aims to study the safety of its implant and surgical robot and to test the functionality of its device.
Trial patients will have a chip surgically placed in the part of the brain that controls the intention to move. The chip, installed by a robot, will then record and send brain signals to an app, with the initial goal being to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,
Speaking on Neuralink’s first human implant, Professor of active implantable medical devices at King’s College London, Anne Vanhoenstenberghe said,
“For the brain chip implant community, we must place this news in the context that while there are many companies working on exciting products, there are only a few other companies who have implanted their devices in humans, so Neuralink has joined a rather small group.
“I expect Neuralink will want to give the participant time to recover before they start training their system with the participant. We know Elon Musk is very adept at generating publicity for his company, so we may expect announcements as soon as they begin testing, although true success in My mind should be evaluated in the long-term, by how stable the interface is over time, and how much it benefits the participant.”
Musk through his neurotechnology company hopes it will be able to connect human brains to computers and cure a range of conditions such as autism, obesity, depression, and schizophrenia, as well as enable web browsing and telepathy.
The Neuralink device will first target restoring vision and enabling movement of muscles in people who cannot do so. He made headlines in 2022 when he said that he was so confident in the device’s safety that he would be willing to implant it in his children.
Neuralink mission is to Create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow