Ilon Musk has announced that his brain-computer interface company Neuralink could implant one of its devices in a person's head within the next six months. He also said that in the future he would implant the device in his head himself.
During the presentation, Musk said the company had submitted most of the paperwork required for human clinical trials to the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates medical devices in the US. Musk had previously said he hoped to start human trials in 2020 and then in 2022. That deadline has now been pushed back to at least 2023.
Neuralink aims to create a device that can be implanted in the brain and used to control a computer using brain activity. Back in 2019, Musk said the company was testing its device on monkeys. In 2020, the company released pigs with implants. And last year, Neuralink released a video of a monkey playing the game Pong using its brain. This year, the monkeys are back. In a video demonstration, one of them helped "type" the phrase "welcome to show and tell" using its implant, focusing on the highlighted words and letters. Another video showed monkeys learning how to charge devices by sitting under a wireless charger.
Later in the presentation, the Neuralink researchers also demonstrated a pig on a treadmill, which they say is helping them study how to solve mobility problems in humans in the future.
The Neuralink devices themselves are small, with several flexible 'strands' that can be inserted into the brain. "It's like replacing part of your skull with a smartwatch, if you can't find a better analogy," Musk said.
In about 15 minutes, 64 such "strands" could be implanted into the brain using a robotic system, D.J. So, vice president of Implant and co-founder of Neuralink, said during the presentation, using a mannequin to show how the process could take place.
The reason for creating robotic surgeons is how tiny these strands are. "Imagine taking a hair from your head and sticking it in a Saran Wrap jelly, doing it with precise depth and precision, and doing it 64 times in a reasonable amount of time," said Christine Odabashian, head of Neuralink's hardware implementation team.
The company's 2019 and 2020 demonstrations were designed as recruitment events, and this demonstration is no different; the company admitted that recruiting new employees was its main goal for the evening. Neuralink is currently seeking employees for a variety of positions as the company moves from "prototype to product", Musk said.
The event was mainly a technical presentation of the device, showing how the system was created, what challenges the team faced, how the technology has been improved to date and what developments lie ahead in the future. The company's researchers said that they were developing treatments that could help either improve or restore vision or restore movement in people with paralysis. In terms of technology, the company is keen for the device itself to be easily upgradable.
"I'm sure you wouldn't want to have an iPhone 1 in your head if the iPhone 14 came along," Musk said.
