Elon Musk Reveals First Human to Have Neuralink Microchip Implanted in Brain
Elon Musk has revealed the first human patient to have a Neuralink microchip implanted into their brain.
The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced on Monday that his company had successfully attached the device inside the unnamed person’s brain on Sunday.
Musk’s new product, called ‘Telepathy,’ will reportedly allow those with disabilities to ‘communicate faster than an auctioneer.’
According to Musk, Neuralink will ‘enable control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking.”
The news comes less than a year after Neuralink was given clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to operate on humans.
Musk wrote on X:
“The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well. Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.”
He added that the device “enables control of your phone or computer and through them almost any device, just by thinking.”
“Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs. Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” he said.
The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well.
Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2024
The company said it aims to implant microchips into the brains of paralyzed people, allowing them to move their bodies with ‘thought.’
The ‘neural lace’ technology implants small brain electrodes that may one day upload and download thoughts.
The Daily Mail reported:
The technology is initially planned to be used to help people suffering from severe degenerative brain disorders such as ALS, but it could have wider uses in years to come.
Neuralink announced in September that it would soon commence a trial in humans to evaluate the safety of its implant.
Details of the patient were not given, but Ashlee Vance, who wrote a 2015 biography, ‘Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,’ wrote in a Bloomberg report that the ideal candidate for Neuralink’s first human trial was ‘an adult under age 40 whose four limbs are paralyzed’.
Vance explained that it would take a ‘couple of hours’ for a surgeon to perform a craniectomy and a further 25 minutes for the chip to be inserted by a robot into the area of the brain that controls the hands, wrists, and forearms.
Vance explained that it would take a ‘couple of hours’ for a surgeon to perform a craniectomy and a further 25 minutes for the chip to be inserted by a robot into the area of the brain that controls the hands, wrists, and forearms.
“The goal is to show that the device can safely collect useful data from that part of the patient’s brain, a key step in Neuralink’s efforts to convert a person’s thoughts into a range of commands a computer can understand,” Vance added.
According to Vance, the implant would relay this information to a nearby computer.
The company said a robot developed by the company would surgically place the implants ‘ultra-fine’ threads, which help transmit signals in human brains.
Last November, we reported that thousands of people were lining up to have the computer chip implanted in their brains.
The Daily Fetched reported:
Thousands of people are eager to participate in the FDA-approved human trials of the brain-computer interface chip developed by Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
The computer chip will be installed in participants’ brains, and we can only hope the results will be better than Musk’s test monkeys, which suffered a grim fate.
According to recent reports, thousands have lined up to be part of the trials involving the implantation of Musk’s Neuralink brain chip, which the Tesla CEO calls a “Fitbit in your skull.”
READ: Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos Pour Millions into Brain Computer Interface Company