Within the next six months, human clinical trials will begin for Elon Musk's Neuralink chip implanted in the brain.
Neuralink's last announcement was over a year ago, when it publicly presented a monkey with a brain chip operating a computer with just its mind.
As Musk himself announced, this chip could restore vision, mobility and communication to people who have such problems.
Founded and owned (but not CEO) by the world's richest man, Neuralink is a medical technology company founded in 2016 with headquarters in San Francisco, California and Austin, Texas.
So far this company has only tested on animals, but is now seeking permission from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test its technology on humans.
"We want to be absolutely careful and make sure it's going to work well before we put a device inside a person," Musk said, and expressed optimism that in about six months the FDA will grant its approval and trials can begin in people.
"Even if someone has never had sight, because they were born blind, we believe we can restore their sight," he noted in a live Neuralink event that was streamed live.
Great plans
Neuralink's last announcement was over a year ago, when it publicly presented a monkey with a brain chip operating a computer with just its mind.
As he has stated that he intends to colonize Mars and save humanity, Musk's goals and ambitions for Neuralink are similarly extremely high.
A key goal of Elon Musk's company is to develop an electronic brain implant that, with the right adjustments each time, will enable various medical "miracles," such as making the blind see, the paralyzed walk, and cure those with dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. At some point he also envisages the "marriage" of the human brain with artificial intelligence.
He's left behind
For now – and more grounded in reality – Neuralink is showing slow progress. Human trials have already been announced since 2019, but Musk's company has consistently missed the necessary deadlines to submit an application for approval to the FDA.
A rival company, Synchron, appears to be leading the way, having already implanted a chip in a patient in the US for the first time in July, and has also tested it in four people in Australia.
Musk himself acknowledged at yesterday's presentation that Neuralink's chip development progress may appear to be "excruciatingly slow," but that every effort is being made to reach the end goal.
Source: Reuters