Elon Musk seems to be thriving with his hands in several businesses. While his recent Twitter acquisition made quite some noise, he was back making headlines once again. This time, it wasn’t because of Twitter. Musk’s brain-computer interface firm, Neuralink announced that it was all set to implant coin-sized computing brain implants into human patients.
At a widely anticipated “show and tell” event that took place a while ago, Musk revealed that these implants would be ready to be employed within the coming six months. This would be Neuralink’s first human trials following discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration that seemed to have gone well.
The firm’s latest work is a small gadget that would be implanted into a human being through electrode-laced wires as well as a robot. The robot would reportedly remove a portion of the individual’s skull in order to implant the device into the brain. Elon Musk’s Neuralink certainly has competition in the same, however, its brain surgery is more intrusive than its counterparts like Synchron. However, the company insisted that it has been running experiments on primates for years to allay any safety worries about the procedure.
As technologically advanced as it sounds, this brain-computer interface [BCI] is expected to aid debilitating conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [ALS]. Those enduring the aftermath of a stroke will also be able to put across their throughs with this device.
Will Neuralink’s device ever become mainstream?
As mentioned earlier, the competition in the market is quite high. While critics have continued to condemn Musk for hyping up the firm’s potential, the billionaire hopes to take Neuralink’s latest creation mainstream.
While the latest device is for the brain, Musk revealed that Neuralink was formulating two other products. One of them is expected to possibly bring back movement into a paralyzed individual as it would be implanted into the spinal cord. The other one would be rolled out to boost human vision and would be an ocular implant.
Speaking about the same, Musk said,
“As miraculous as that may sound, we are confident that it is possible to restore full-body functionality to someone who has a severed spinal cord.”
Work on spinal and ocular implants is far more recent than its brain implants. Therefore, it could be quite some time before they make a debut.