Neuralink has announced that it has obtained approval from regulatory authorities US to test its brain implants in people. Elon Musk’s start-up said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its first human clinical trial is “an important first step” for its technology, which aims to allow brains to interface directly with computers
Musk: first important step
“This is an important first step that will allow our technology to help many people one day,” explained the Californian company on its Twitter account, adding that “recruitments for clinical trials are not yet open.”
Possible uses
Neuralink designs connected devices to be implanted in the brain to communicate with computers directly through thought. They will have to be used primarily to help people who are paralyzed or suffering from neurological diseases. The start-up therefore wants to make these implants safe and reliable enough to be elective surgeries.
A few thousand dollars to equip the brain with the power of the pc
People could then pay a few thousand dollars to equip their brains with computer power. For Elon Musk these chips must allow humanity to achieve a “symbiosis with AI”, in his 2020 words spoken at the company’s annual conference. “We are now confident that Neuralink’s device is ready for humans, so the timing depends on the FDA approval process,” he said in late November on Twitter a month after buying the social network. The billionaire is used to risky predictions, as was the case for the autonomy of Tesla electric cars. In July 2019, he estimated that Neuralink could run its first tests on people in 2020.
First implants in animal skulls
So far, coin-sized prototypes have been implanted in the skulls of animals. Several monkeys are thus able to “play” video games or “type” words on a screen simply by following the movement of the cursor with their eyes. Other companies are working to control computers with thought, such as Synchron which announced in July 2022 that it had implanted the first brain-machine interface in the United States.