Elon Musk
revealed surprising data about
Telepathy
, the first Neuralink brain chip implanted in a human.
The American magnate assured that the first patient was able to
move a computer cursor with thought
.
"It appears that the patient recovered completely (from the implantation)
without adverse effects
," Musk said in an interview broadcast on his
X
platform , formerly known as Twitter.
In addition, he is able to
"move the mouse cursor around the screen with just thought
," he revealed.
"We try to make as many button presses as possible come from thought," the tycoon added.
"You want to have, obviously,
more than just two buttons
."
How Telepathy, Neuralink's brain chip, works
Elon Musk, the mind behind the project.
(Neuralink Photo)
Neuralink's revolutionary technology works through a device the
size of five stacked coins
that is placed inside the human brain through
invasive surgery
.
The "start-up", co-founded by Musk in 2016, aims to build
direct communication channels between the brain and computers
.
Until now, brain implants were developed in only one direction: from the brain to the outside (generally a computer that processes the signals), but the Neuralink project aims to be able to
transfer information also in the other direction
, towards the brain.
The company's ambition is to enhance human capabilities,
treat neurological disorders
such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Parkinson's and, perhaps one day, achieve a
symbiotic relationship between humans and artificial intelligence
.
The Neuralink startup managed to focus specifically on designing implants for humans capable of
interpreting brain signals
in order to control different technologies and so that people who have lost senses such as vision, touch or speech can recover them.
Recently, the company specified that they were working in parallel with
two types of implants
, one to
restore vision
"even in those who have never had it" and another to restore basic bodily functions in
people with paralysis
due to spinal cord damage.
Neuralink began recruiting patients for its first-in-human clinical trial in the fall, after receiving approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May.
In 2021, Neuralink posted a video on YouTube showing a
monkey with a chip implanted in its brain playing a video game
that it controlled from its mind.
Video
Elon Musk's company continued its tests after working with pigs.
In the three-and-a-half-minute video, the nine-year-old monkey
Pager
plays a version of the classic video game Pong and every time he guesses correctly he receives a banana smoothie as compensation that is given to him through a straw.
A few months earlier, Neuralink successfully tested a chip in
pigs
that, implanted in the skull, allowed the animals' brain activity to be measured.
Musk is not the only one
trying to advance this field, officially known as brain-computer interface research.
After several delays, the tycoon would have tried to join forces with the implant developer
Synchron
.
That company, based in Australia, implanted its first device in a US patient in July 2022.
With information from agencies.
SL