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Neuralink
As predicted, Elon Musk today demonstrated the results of his human brain and machine interface company Neuralink over the past year. This includes the second-generation Neuralink surgical robot and an implanted device called “Link.” Musk emphasized that the purpose of this conference is to make Neuralink’s goals and progress less mysterious, and to attract more talents with hardware and software capabilities to join the ranks of research and development.
Neuralink
There are two key Neuralink technologies. First of all, the “Link” implant device is a round cake with a diameter of 23 mm and a thickness of approximately 8 mm. It can collect information from up to 1,024 electrodes only 5 microns thick and then transmit it to the mobile phone via Bluetooth. Compared to the previous human brain interface, Musk said this round cake is specially designed to be the same thickness as the brain layer, so as long as a 23mm diameter hole is drilled (about the size of a larger coin) on the head cape will do. With Link buried in it, no difference in appearance will be seen. Link charges wirelessly and is designed to provide a day’s electricity to charge while you sleep.
Another technology is the robot that Link implants. This is the second-generation prototype of the automatic robot launched last year, which can complete a series of operations such as cutting the scalp, punching a hole in the skull, implanting electrodes, installing Link, and gluing the scalp. Musk showed three pigs, named Joyce, Gertude, and Dorothy (pig skulls are similar in shape and thickness to humans). Among them, Joyce is the “control group” without Link’s implantation, and Dorothy is the post-implantation. It was removed again, showing Link’s “reversibility” and “upgradeability”. The last Gertude is implanted with the Link device, which is connected to the cerebral cortex related to her pig nose. Whenever Gertude touched something with her pig nose at the scene, Link would make a beep, which was quite powerful.
Neuralink
Neuralink’s goal is to first use Link as a pure post-market data collection device, similar to a health bracelet, but to collect brain communications. This has the opportunity to help monitor the initial symptoms of some diseases (such as heart disease or stroke), but it is still difficult to collect accurate data with more than a thousand electrodes, so things like memory backup will not happen. in the future. In addition, Neuralink is also conducting research on brain “writing,” which inversely influences brain activity via electrodes, but at the initial stage, reading is the main focus. So far, Neuralink hasn’t been tested in humans, but the FDA has granted special test approval for “breakthrough devices,” so the first Neuralink installation case is probably not far off.
Musk estimates that when the technology matures, the cost of the entire system (Link plus surgery) will be roughly the same as laser myopia correction surgery.
