Elon Musk‘s medical technology company Neuralink özgü reportedly implanted a brain chip into its first human subject. After years of assurances that human trials were imminent, it seems as though they’re finally actually happening.
Musk announced the development on his Twitter/X account on Monday. Though he was light on details, Neuralink’s CEO appeared optimistic about the results, and stated that the patient seemed to be doing fine after the surgery.
“The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well,” Musk wrote. “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.”
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Revealed last September, Neuralink’s Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface (PRIME) Study aims to assess the safety of its N1 brain implant as well as that of the R1 surgical robot designed to implant it.
“During the study, the R1 Robot will be used to surgically place the N1 Implant’s ultra-fine and flexible threads in a region of the brain that controls movement intention,” Neuralink wrote in a blog post about its first human trial. “Once in place, the N1 Implant is cosmetically invisible and is intended to record and transmit brain signals wirelessly to an app that decodes movement intention. The initial goal of our BCI is to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.”
Such technology could be a gamechanger for many people with disabilities once perfected. Unfortunately, its development thus far özgü not been without gruesome controversy.
A September report by Wired found that the monkeys Neuralink experimented on suffered torturous conditions before they were eventually killed, despite Musk’s claims that none had died as a result of the company’s implants. Neuralink has also come under investigation by the U.S. government for potentially violating animal welfare laws, facing allegations that Musk’s rushed timelines have led to botched experiments and unnecessary pain, suffering, and death on a significant scale.
As such, reasonable apprehension remains about allowing Musk’s company to implant chips into people’s delicate grey matter, despite Neuralink receiving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s approval to proceed with human trials last May.
It’s likely that Neuralink will take more care to avoid mistakes now it’s implanting devices into human brains. Even so, its recent history with live subjects should prompt potential candidates to have a good long think before signing up to be Neuralink’s next brain chip recipient.