Elon Musk Promises Working Neuralink Demo This Week-The Company is Developing Brain-Machine Interface Technology
Even back in July, Elon Musk initially announced the August 28th as “progress update”, and in two days Tesla CEO Elon Musk will give more details about his brain interface company, Neuralink, late on Friday evening, to be more precise.
Furthermore, he also tweeted and scheduled a working demonstration of Neuralink’s human brain to machine interface for August 28, at 3pm Pacific Time. Musk initially announced the August 28th as “progress update” even back in July
Three years ago, in 2017, Elon Musk had revealed his plans to develop a human brain to a computer interface within the next four years, with the help of his company Neuralink.
Musk has since then spoken several times about his belief that BMI devices are needed to help humans keep up with AI, by supplementing our brainpower. However, at this moment, his goal is much simpler – create an implantable device that would allow people to control phones or computers with their mind. On previous occasion, he confirmed that the chip would be able to control hormone levels as well, which would potentially help with anxiety relief, and other things.
According to Musk, Neuralink already tested the interface device on monkeys, and they were able to control a computer with their brain, however, it remains unknown were allowed to begin human testing by the US Food and Drug Administration.
What we know is that Neuralink’s chip, N1, can be surgically implanted into the brain, by using a robot through a two-inch incision, and this whole operation should take less than an hour. Furthermore, he added that the company is still far from perfecting this process, but that they might get pretty close to it in a few years.
On the other side, Facebook has also revealed plans to connect human brains to computers, so Neuralink may have to compete with them.
Neuralink
Elon Musk’s company Neuralink is focusing on creating chips that could be implanted into the human brain. The final result of it should be enabling people to effectively merge with software and adapt to the advancements in artificial intelligence.
Neuralink’s mission is also to help treat brain disorders, enhance and preserve human brains, and, as already mentioned, eventually merge humans with AI by inserting a chip into the human brain.
Even compared to Musk’s other ventures, such as SpaceX and Tesla, Neuralink’s mission seems quite ambitious, even for him. The company wants to connect to the brain using flexible electrodes (“threads”), thinner than a human hair. Current BMI devices use stiff electrodes, but they may cause a damage. On the contrary, inserting flexible electrodes should be more delicate and challenging task, therefore the company focused on building a machine to do the job.
However, not everyone is up for this potential break-through technology, as ”Black Mirror” (popular futuristic TV show) fans compared it to a real-life episode, and it already brought concerns regarding questionable ethics and privacy.
