(NewsNation) — Elon Musk’s human tech startup, Neuralink, has successfully implanted a chip into a human’s brain for the first time ever. It’s a major step in the company’s quest to help patients with paralysis and a long list of other neurological conditions.
Musk described his vision for Neuralink as a “brain-computer interface” with the goal of giving people who have lost the use of their limbs the ability to interact with their surroundings.
The first Neuralink tech to be tested on humans is called “telepathy,” which according to Musk, aims to allow people to control their phone or their computer with only their thoughts.
“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Musk wrote in a social media post.
Musk broke the news on X, his social media site formerly known as Twitter, saying the person who received the implant is recovering well and showing promising neuron spike detection. Neurons are the cells that send messages all over the body, telling it to do everything from eating, walking and sleeping. When neurons spike, it means they’re showing activity.
According to Neuralink’s website, the majority of the implanting operation is conducted by a robot. The actual brain implant is about the size of a quarter and is connected to 64 threads lined with 1,000 electrodes along the patient’s brain, relaying electrical signals.
Neuralink claims the goal is for people to “operate a computer or smartphone by simply intending to move — no wires or physical movement are required.”
Musk said the first people who will have access to the device will be those who have lost the use of their limbs.
Neuralink is still in clinical trials, so it will be a while before the tech hits the market.
Plus, while the chip could mean incredible things for the future of medicine and technology, Musk’s research has been criticized by ethics groups.
A medical ethics group alleged last fall in letters to the U.S. Securities Exchange and Commission that Musk made false statements about the death of primates used for research at Neuralink.
Musk on Sept. 10 wrote in a reply on X, “No monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant” and that “terminal monkeys (sic)” who were close to death already were chosen for experiments.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit dedicated to ending live animal testing, called for an investigation into these claims. Letters from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine say Musk’s comments about the monkey’s deaths were misleading, and he knew them to be false.
NewsNation’s Cassie Buchman and Devan Markham contributed to this report.
