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TBillionaire Elon Musk is advancing his plan to create an electronic connection to the human brain. Musk on Friday unveiled a prototype for a device from his company Neuralink that can transmit information between neurons and a smartphone. It is round with a diameter of 23 millimeters by 8 millimeters thick and is placed on the skull.
Musk and Neuralink see potential areas of application for the technology in humans, for example, in the treatment of pain, visual impairment, hearing loss, insomnia or brain damage, as well as spinal cord injuries. In the future, it would be conceivable to use the technology to tie the injured nerve tissue together so that people could walk again, Musk said. It did not provide any information on the time horizon. “Neurons are like wires. And you need an electronic device to solve an electronic problem. “
The current Neuralink prototype is equipped with sensors for temperature, pressure and motion, among other things. “The device could monitor health and warn, for example, of a risk of heart attack or stroke,” Musk said. The mini computer on the head must communicate with an application on the smartphone through the Bluetooth radio. The battery lasts about a day; charging is wireless. “It’s like a Fitbit with fine cables on the head,” Musk tried to explain, comparing it to fitness trackers, which are usually tucked into a bracelet.
A robot is supposed to implant the chip
Neuralink implants the devices in pigs. Musk displayed one of the animals at the company’s headquarters in Fremont, California, where pulses were transmitted from the trunk. Every time the pig named Gertrude touched something with it, electrical signals could be seen on a screen. In the case of a pig on the treadmill, the software could use the information from the device to predict when which joint would fire.
Neuralink developed a robot for implantation in the brain. The machine connects the fine lines of the mini computer with human tissue. Except for a small scar under the hair, there was no trace, Musk said. “It could have a neural link right now, and you wouldn’t see it. Maybe I have one too, ”Musk joked in his usual way.
This is how the Neuralink chip implantation should work.
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Image: AFP / Neuralink
The first Neuralink devices would remain very expensive. However, it assumes that over time the costs, including the operation, will drop to a few thousand dollars. Musk did not mention a time when this goal should be achieved.
The Neuralink startup currently has about 100 employees, at some point it could be 10,000, Musk said. The billionaire, who is also the head of the electric car maker Tesla and the space company Space X, has been emphasizing for some time that people will have to connect their brains to computers in the future to keep up with the upcoming intelligence. artificial.
With that in mind, it’s no surprise that Musk and his top Fremont leaders have pretty broad ideas about what the technology could accomplish. “I think in the future you will be able to store and reproduce memories,” Musk said. Similarly, people could at some point communicate directly through thought transmission without having to resort to words. Facebook had already introduced a similar line of research more than three years ago: the online network imagined that it could send messages to friends directly from the head.
In the medical field there has been a lot of experimentation with neural implants for years, for example, so that paralyzed people can write messages. Musk says the connective tissue developed by Neuralink is much more efficient than current solutions with electrodes in the brain.
One of the first questions to Musk at the event, which was also streamed online, was one of the first questions Musk asked about whether a Tesla vehicle could ever be allowed to approach. “Sure. Of course,” he said immediately, and it was unclear if Musk was joking or serious.
