Elon Musk’s brain machine interface company, Neuralink, has scheduled an event for later this week to update the public on his progress since last year’s presentation. While the agenda is largely speculative, one expectation is a live demonstration of neuronal activity.
“On August 28, they will show neurons that travel in time. The matrix within the matrix, ”Musk tweeted at the end of July.
He also revealed a few other hints about the announcement of the early fall at the beginning of the year. “Wait until you see the next version vs what was presented last year. It’s * great *, “he wrote in February. “The deep impact of high bandwidth, high precision neural interfaces is not appreciated. Neuralink may have this in a human this year. Must just be untimely better than Utah Array, which is already in some people & has bad disadvantages. ”
As the name suggests, the roles of neuronal activities are very important for Neuralink’s technology. The venture’s long-term goal of obtaining human symbiosis with artificial intelligence (AI) begins by connecting electrodes throughout the brain and reading its neuron signals en masse. Large amounts of data collected from the signals gradually teach Neuralink’s software how they are used by the brain to communicate with the rest of the body, which eventually leads to a certain amount of replication and direction. The possibilities of such a capacity seem endless.
Musk has pointed to some of the health-oriented capabilities that Neuralink’s technology may develop, specifically in individuals who are neurologically compromised. Installing a chip that replaces a small part of the human skull, for example, can restore limb function, improve human movement, solve vision and hearing problems, and help with diseases such as Parkinson’s. There is also the possibility that the implementation of a Neuralink device in a brain could pave the way for troublesome problems such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.
One of the inventions of Neuralink already revealed is a surgical robot for inserting electrodes into the brain. The devices are connected by flexible “thread” measuring between 4 and 6 μm or, about 1/3 the diameter of human hair, capable of transmitting high volumes of data from the brain. The design has been tested on at least 19 different animals with robots with a success rate of 87%, according to the venture’s presentation last year. Human trials are possible on the schedule for 2020, and this aspect may be part of Friday’s renewal.
Neuralink published a white paper in 2019 and currently has four published patent applications, all of which expand on the data of the technology that has already been disclosed.
While the medical possibilities of Neuralink’s work in themselves are immense, Musk’s involvement was initiated by a desire to help people keep up with AI. ‘I do not like the idea of being [a computer’s] domestic cat, but what is the solution? I think one of the solutions that might seem like the best is to add an AI layer, ‘he said half-jokingly at Code Conference 2016. Hopefully the next presentation will provide some insight into Neuralink’s progress in that direction, even if it is still purely hypothetical.
The Neuralink update event will be held on August 28 and is expected to have a live stream.
