Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, sent shockwaves across the internet on Monday when he revealed a startup in a post on X. Making waves, Musk's controversial Neuralink has achieved a milestone by successfully implanting a chip in a human brain for the first time.
The procedure occurred on Sunday, and the patient is showing positive signs of recovery. Elon Musk mentioned that promising neuron spike detection has been observed in the early results. The surgical operation doesn't come as a surprise, as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted clearance to the company in May 2023 to conduct the first human trial of its implant.
The implant developed by Neuralink, named "Link," is a compact device approximately the size of five stacked coins and is surgically embedded within the human brain. The company has successfully secured over $363 million in funding, and its headquarters proudly houses a formidable team of more than 400 employees.
The technology billionaire has expressed his objective of linking human brains to computers as a means to address intricate neurological conditions. He claimed that the initial product from Neuralink is named Telepathy, which aims to enable individuals to control their phones or computers through mere thoughts. Drawing inspiration from the late British scientist who battled motor neuron disease, he envisioned a future where individuals, like Stephen Hawking, could communicate at a pace surpassing that of a skilled typist or auctioneer – that is the ultimate goal.
One of the companies achieving comparable breakthroughs in the field is the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. They have achieved the remarkable feat of allowing a paralyzed individual to walk simply through the power of thought.