Billionaire Elon Musk’s neuroscience startup Neuralink on Friday unveiled a pig that has had a coin-sized computer chip in its brain for two months, demonstrating a first step toward the goal of curing human disease with it. same type of implant.
Co-founded by Musk in 2016, San Francisco-based Neuralink aims to implant wireless brain-computer interfaces that include thousands of electrodes in the most complex human organ to help heal neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia, and spinal cord injuries and ultimately merging humanity with artificial intelligence.
“An implantable device can really solve these problems,” Musk said in a webcast on Friday, citing ailments such as memory loss, hearing loss, depression and insomnia.
But Musk said the focus of Friday’s event was recruiting.
“We are not trying to raise money,” Musk said. “We are trying to convince great people to work at Neuralink.”
Musk has a history of bringing together diverse experts to dramatically accelerate the development of innovations previously confined to academic labs, including rocket, hyperloop and electric vehicle technologies through companies like Tesla Inc and SpaceX.
Neuralink has received $ 158 million in funding, $ 100 million of which comes from Musk, and employs approximately 100 staff members, according to data from LinkedIn.
During a Neuralink presentation in July 2019, Musk said the company aimed to receive regulatory approval to implant its device in human trials later this year. Beyond medical care, Musk, who frequently warns of the risks of artificial intelligence, has said the implant “would secure the future of humanity as a civilization relative to AI.”
Musk described the Neuralink sensor, which is about three-tenths of an inch (eight millimeters) in diameter, or smaller than the tip of a finger, as “a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires.”
With the help of a sophisticated robot, flexible threads or wires smaller than a human hair are implanted into areas of the brain responsible for motor and sensory functions while the recipient is under local anesthesia only. The device is removable, Musk said.
Neuroscience experts said that while Neuralink’s mission to read and stimulate brain activity in humans is feasible, the company’s timeline seemed too ambitious.
“Everyone in the field would be very impressed if they actually showed data from a device implanted in a human being,” said Graeme Moffat, a neuroscience researcher at the University of Toronto.
Small devices that electronically stimulate nerves and areas of the brain have been implanted in humans for decades to treat hearing loss and Parkinson’s disease.
Neuroscientists have also conducted brain implant trials with a small number of people who have lost control of bodily functions due to spinal cord injuries or neurological conditions such as strokes. The humans in those trials could control robotic limbs or small objects, like a computer keyboard or mouse cursor, but they have yet to complete more sophisticated tasks.
Most of today’s cutting-edge research into the brain-machine interface is conducted in animals, the scientists note, with safety challenges and lengthy regulatory approval procedures preventing larger human trials.
Brain-machine interface science has seen an increase in investment activity in recent years with startups like Kernel, Paradromics, and NeuroPace trying to exploit advances in signaling, wireless, and materials technology.
The field also includes established medical device manufacturer Medtronic PLC, which produces brain implants to treat Parkinson’s disease, essential tremors, epilepsy, and other conditions.
But scientists still face a variety of problems, including preventing scar tissue around the implant, the quality of measurements and developing machine learning algorithms to interpret brain signals, said Amy Orsborn, an assistant professor at the University of Washington investigating neural interfaces. .
“I don’t think we know what the magic formula is, we just know the problem,” Orsborn told Reuters.
.
