Technology: Musk's startup Neuralink implants first chip in the brain

Neuralink, a startup owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has inserted a brain implant into a patient for the first time since its founding. “The first person received the Neuralink implant yesterday and is recovering well,” Musk said on Monday.

Initial results of neuronal activity are “promising,” Musk wrote on SMS X, formerly Twitter.

The company, which was founded in 2016, obtained approval from the US authorities last year to test human brain organ transplants. The implants are about the size of five coins stacked on top of each other. It aims to help people with neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but it also essentially enables direct communication between the brain, computers and artificial intelligence and thus augments human capabilities.

Control your computer and cell phone

“It allows you to control your cell phone, your computer, almost any device, just by thinking. The first users will be those who can no longer move their limbs,” Musk wrote on X on Monday.

Neuralink isn't the only company working on brain-computer interfaces. In July 2022, Australian-based competitor Synchron announced that it was the first company to attach a corresponding chip to the brain of an American patient.

SDA