According to Bloomberg, the first human patient has received a brain implant from Elon Musk’s controversial startup Neuralink Corp. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Musk said that the patient is “recovering well,” and that initial results are promising.
The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2024
Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.
What Is Neuralink?
According to Ramses Alcaide, CEO of Neurable, Neuralink devices are
“…designed to connect human brains directly to computers… “[Neuralink’s technology] is capable of recording and decoding neural signals and then transmitting information back to the brain using electrical stimulation.”
Ramses Alcaide
BuiltIn fleshes this out further:
“The implant itself is called ‘the Link.’ This coin-sized brain chip is surgically embedded under the skull, where it receives information from neural threads that fan out into different sections of a subject’s brain in control of motor skills. Each wire contains 1,024 electrodes, which are sensors capable of recording and emitting electrical currents”
BuiltIn
According to Neuralink’s own website, these electrodes are:
“so fine and flexible that they can’t be inserted by the human hand.”
Neuralink
Hence why the company has had to build a fully automated robot to carry out installations.
How Does Neuralink Work?
BuiltIn says this:
“The electrical chemical signals in our nervous system spark as neurons communicate with one another across gaps between nerve cells known as synapses. This brain activity is captured by electrodes, or sensors that detect voltages, measuring the change in ‘spikes’ of when these voltages fire (or potentially fire).”
BuiltIn
Musk references one such spike in his Tweet, suggesting the device is working well.
Sonal Baberwal, a Dublin City University-based researcher and expert in algorthims, data, and wearable tech, added this:
“It simply measures the brain activity and interprets it as an action… Similarly with your brain signals — eyes closed or opened, a relaxed or deep-sleep state, an action or focus state — all of these aspects can be detected.”
Sonal Baberwal
Does this tech excite you or do you think it’s a little too space-age for our own good? Is this the beginning of a brave new world or a tech-bro dystopia? Let us know.