Adrian JohnsonIn a major milestone for Neuralink, Elon Musk’s tech startup, the company has successfully implanted a brain chip in its first human patient. Musk announced the news on his social media platform “X,” stating that the patient is currently in the recovery process. The chip, called Telepathy, is designed to allow individuals to control external devices through their thoughts alone. Neuralink also plans to offer brain implants to paralysis patients as part of its study. This development is seen as a significant step forward for the company’s goal of bringing life-transforming technology out of the lab and into the real world. However, Musk provided few details about the procedure or the results so far.
Neuralink has been working on using brain implants to connect humans to computers for five years. In May 2023, the company received FDA clearance for human clinical trials and began recruiting patients with quadriplegia or ALS. Trial patients will have a chip placed in the part of the brain controlling movement, which will record and send brain signals to an app. The initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone. Neuralink’s efforts have faced scrutiny in the past, particularly after a monkey died during a failed attempt to play a video game in 2022.
This successful implantation marks a significant achievement for Neuralink and brings the company one step closer to its goal of revolutionizing how humans interact with technology through brain-computer interfaces.
