Elon Musk says his startup Neuralink has implanted a device in its first human
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Tech billionaire Elon Musk said Monday that his brain-science startup company, Neuralink, had implanted a device in a human for the first time, a possible step toward a product that he said would allow people to control almost any external device "just by thinking."
Musk made the announcement on X. He said the patient, whom he did not identify, "received an implant" Sunday and "is recovering well." The initial results, he added, showed "promising neuron spike detection." He gave no other details about the procedure, the patient or the device the company implanted.
Scientists for decades have worked on similar ideas for brain-computer interfaces that, if successful, could one day assist people who are physically disabled, change how people communicate or more.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of Neuralink's progress. One of Neuralink's competitors, Precision Neuroscience, implanted its device in a human for the first time last year.
Musk's announcement comes eight months after Neuralink said it had received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to conduct its first in-human clinical study. In September, Neuralink said it would begin recruiting patients for the study.
Neuralink, which is based in San Francisco, did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
The FDA, which regulates medical devices and would need to approve any consumer product, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Musk's announcement.
Neuralink has said it was building a brain implant called the Link to help patients, including those with severe paralysis, use external technologies. Musk said Monday that Neuralink's first product would be called Telepathy. He did not say whether it was a new device or a new name for the previously announced device.
Neuralink has faced accusations in recent years that it mistreated some of the monkeys it used in its experiments. The Agriculture Department said last year after an investigation that it did not find any violations of animal research rules other than a self-reported 2019 incident in which a Neuralink surgeon used an unapproved sealant to close holes drilled into a monkey's skull, Reuters reported.
The Telepathy product would allow people to control their phones or computers — and, through those devices, almost any other device — with thought only, Musk said.
"Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs," he wrote on X. "Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal."
Musk co-founded Neuralink in 2016, adding it to a roster of other companies he leads, including Tesla and SpaceX. He bought X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022.
Neuralink is backed by more than 30 investors, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, according to TechCrunch. Musk said in 2022 that he plans to get one of the Neuralink implants himself.
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I can only imagine the kind of morality play that Rod Serling would write based on this.
The Telepathy product would allow people to control their phones or computers — and, through those devices, almost any other device — with thought only, Musk said.
This could bring the war for the TV remote to a whole new level.
Based on the earlier monkey trials, I hope the Elon paid out the nose to have someone try it.
What concerns me is not what the brain can cause the implant to do, but what messages sent to the implant can cause the brain to do. Has anyone seen the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate? I'm a great believer not only in Art imitating Life, but also in Life imitating Art. There have been too many examples happening of Life imitating Art to ignore the possibilities. In the movie, a tiny implant was inserted into a number of American prisoners of war, and the one planted into Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) guided him into murdering someone whom he would never normally have murdered. So I guess what worries me is the possibility of a lot of zombies being created.
A very good point. There is an abundance of science that shows how our thinking is influenced by factors beyond nature and nurture. The immediately obvious one are hormones. Think of how the teenage brain is influenced by the hormonal chaos taking place. Next, consider blood chemistry and the effects on the brain resulting from alcohol and drugs. People with brain damage (where select parts of their brains are lost to accident or illness) show all sorts of different behaviors ... new, unusual personalities that they did not show prior to their brain problem.
Our brains can be highly influenced by external factors so the notion that something could achieve control over the brain is not far-fetched. Scary, but not far-fetched.