The world’s richest man, Elon Musk has said he expects a wireless brain chip developed by his company Neuralink to begin human clinical trials in six months.
The company is developing brain chip interfaces that Musk says could enable disabled patients to move and communicate again. Musk added that the chip will also target restoring vision.
Neuralink has been conducting animal tests in recent years as it seeks FDA approval to begin human clinical trials.
A Neuralink-trained monkey doing Telepathic Typing, using just his mind 🤯 @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/PUkFA9qpUi
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) December 1, 2022
Neuralink can restore vision even if you were born blind 🤯 @elonmusk
— Pranay Pathole (@PPathole) December 1, 2022
Musk emphasized the speed with which the company is developing its device to a crowd of selected invitees during a nearly three-hour presentation at Neuralink headquarters on Wednesday November 30.
“The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel,” he sai.
“So, in theory, progress should be exponential.”
“We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human,”
The event was originally scheduled for October 31, but Musk canceled it just days before with no explanation.
More than a year ago, Neuralink presented a monkey with a brain chip that played a computer game by thinking alone.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), SpaceX, and Twitter, has previously spoken of his lofty goals, including colonizing Mars and saving humanity.
He claims that the neuralink chip will allow the brain to control complex electronic devices, allowing paralyzed people to regain motor function and treat brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. He has also mentioned combining the brain and artificial intelligence.
