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Implant from Neuralink: The chip should be able to transmit signals from the brain to computers
Photo: Neuralink/AFP
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has promised a lot in his life, and he has kept some of them.
When he announced that he would build rockets himself - without any help from space organizations like Nasa - he was smiled at.
Today, his company SpaceX's rockets fly astronauts to the ISS.
Even his promise to build e-cars may one day have elicited a weary smile from many a car manufacturer.
Today Tesla is the most valuable car brand in the world.
Now Musks has spoken again: Brain chips from his company Neuralink are to be tested on humans for the first time in just six months.
The billionaire promises that the chips will one day enable the paralyzed to move again and the blind to see again.
Sounds fantastic.
Too awesome?
The problem with the schedule
In fact, Neuralink is behind schedule, much to the annoyance of Musk, who is notorious for his rigid work ethic demands.
The chips were originally supposed to be tested on humans years ago.
And Neuralink is far from the only company working on such brain-computer interfaces.
Other competitors are even further ahead.
Neuralink's chip is designed to bridge nerve damage and transmit thoughts to smartphones and computers.
According to the Reuters news agency, Musk promised that people with disabilities could walk and speak again at a presentation to selected guests in San Francisco that lasted almost three hours.
Diseases such as Parkinson's, dementia or Alzheimer's could also be treated with the chip.
At some point, according to Musk, the chip could also be linked to artificial intelligence.
Other applications beyond medicine are also possible.
With the chip, smartphones could be operated by the mind - much faster than a thumb could ever do.
So much for the promises.
But are they to be complied with?
Monkey could play Pong - with his mind
The original schedule is already ruined.
Musk announced in 2019 that human trials could start soon.
He expects approval by the end of 2020. At a conference in late 2021 - the trials had still not started - he expressed confidence that the clinical trials would start in 2022.
Now the year is drawing to a close.
Accordingly, Musk's new announcements about Neuralink were expected.
They were originally scheduled for October 31, but Musk had canceled the date just days before, without giving a reason.
Now it should be so far in six months.
After all, the Neuralink brain-computer interface exists – and works.
It has already been planted in a pig and a macaque.
During the last presentation of the Silicon Valley-based company, the monkey was able to play the computer game Pong - without a joystick or remote control.
Thanks to the chip, he controls the game with his thoughts alone, according to Neuralink.
Shopping online with an implant
What sounds like science fiction is long established research.
As early as 2021, researchers presented an implant in the renowned journal Science that a paralytic could use to write again.
The chip translated the man's handwriting thoughts into actual writing on the computer (Read more here.)
The company Synchron was able to test an implant in a patient in the USA for the first time in July.
US authorities had already approved the attempt in 2021.
In Australia, the company has already completed trials involving four people.
According to the manufacturer, the computer-brain interface called Stentrode can receive and send neuronal signals.
With the implant, patients could have sent messages and shopped online, for example.
Musk is said to have already inquired about a possible investment with Synchron.
koe/Reuters
