I never thought I'd see the day when we started implanting chips in people's brains, but it looks like that time has come.
Yes, Elon Musk does everything, apparently, and now he's ready to start implanting people's brains with microchips that will help those with severe paralysis "control external technologies using only neural signals."
Elon Musk's neurotech startup Neuralink will begin recruiting patients for its first in-human clinical trial, the company announced in a blog post…
Patients who participate in the trial will have to undergo invasive brain surgery. Neuralink is building a brain implant that aims to help people with severe paralysis control external technologies using only neural signals. This means patients with severe degenerative diseases like ALS could eventually regain their ability to communicate with loved ones by moving cursors and typing with their minds.
Here's that blog post for you if you want to read it in full.
I'll give you most of it here:
We are happy to announce that we've received approval from the reviewing independent institutional review board and our first hospital site to begin recruitment for our first-in-human clinical trial. The PRIME Study (short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface) - a groundbreaking investigational medical device trial for our fully-implantable, wireless brain-computer interface (BCI) - aims to evaluate the safety of our implant (N1) and surgical robot (R1) and assess the initial functionality of our BCI for enabling people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts.
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. 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.
This is the future right here, and I'm completely taken aback by the fact that any of this is even remotely possible, let alone going to trial. It looks like there are other players in the game, too, Musk just being the most prominent.
Neuralink is part of the emerging brain-computer interface, or BCI, industry, which centers on systems that decipher brain signals and translate them into commands for external technologies. Several companies have developed promising systems that they hope to bring to market, but Neuralink is perhaps the best-known name in the space due to Musk himself, who is CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX.
As of September, no BCI company has managed to clinch the FDA's final seal of approval. But by receiving the go-ahead to recruit for a study with human patients, Neuralink is one step closer.
Super cool stuff, and I can't wait to see what this looks like once the trials are over and the real work begins.
Keep it up, Elon.
(Unless this turns into The Matrix 😭)
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