Elon Musk said on the social media platform X on Monday that the primary human patient has received a brain implant developed by his company Neuralink.
After years of delays, Neuralink began recruiting patients for a clinical trial in the autumn after receiving approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and a hospital ethics board. The company is developing a tool called a brain-computer interface.
Musk has said that Neuralink’s ultimate goal is to “achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence,” but for now he’s starting with a way more modest aim: allowing paralyzed people to regulate a cursor or keyboard with their brains. In a brochure concerning the study, Neuralink says it’s recruiting participants with quadriplegia, or paralysis in all 4 limbs, on account of cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and which might be at the very least 22 years old. It anticipates the study will take six years to finish.
In its brochure, the corporate says it would use a surgical robot it developed to put the implant right into a region of the brain that controls movement intention. Once in place, the coin-sized device is designed to record and transmit brain signals wirelessly to an app that decodes those signals.
In his post on Monday, Musk added that the patient was “recovering well” and that “initial results show promising neuron spike detection.” But it might be months before we all know whether the patient can successfully use the implant to regulate a pc or other device. The person could have to recuperate from surgery, and training someone to make use of a BCI can take several weeks.
The Neuralink patient is removed from the primary to get a BCI. A number of dozen people world wide have been outfitted with the devices as a part of research studies. The first, Matt Nagle, did so in 2004. Over the years, these systems have allowed paralyzed people to play video games, move robotic arms, and write emails using just their thoughts.
Until recently, BCIs were largely pursued by academic labs. They required clunky setups using thick cables that made them impractical to make use of at home. Neuralink’s system is designed to be wireless and records neural activity through greater than 1,000 electrodes distributed across 64 threads, each thinner than a human hair. The commonest device utilized in BCI research, the Utah array, records from 100 electrodes.
The company has also been beset by controversy, particularly around its treatment of research animals. A WIRED investigation in September detailed how a few of its monkeys died in consequence of the corporate’s brain implant testing. The company is reportedly facing a federal investigation related to its treatment of animal subjects. And this month, a Reuters report revealed that Neuralink was fined for violating US Department of Transportation rules regarding the movement of hazardous materials.
Since Neuralink’s founding in 2016, a handful of corporations have emerged to commercialize these systems. One competitor, New York–based Synchron, has not only beat Neuralink to implanting its BCI in people but has shown that its device is secure and allows patients with paralysis to browse the online and do online shopping and banking while at home.
Neuralink has not specified where the trial is happening or what number of patients will likely be included. The company has arrange a patient registry for potential participants to learn whether or not they qualify for the study. It has not registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, a central database with information on clinical studies funded or sponsored by industry and government agencies.
Right now, the one details available on the Neuralink surgery come from a single Musk tweet. While it could not move the needle on merging humans with AI, it will represent a critical milestone for a promising device.
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