We all know Elon Musk for his groundbreaking achievements like SpaceX and Tesla. But have you heard about one of his most mind-blowing projects through Neuralink, his neurotechnology company? Neuralink aims to develop a chip that could be implanted in the human brain. This is said to unlock capabilities reminiscent of those seen in sci-fi, such as the abilities of Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men. In the latest development, the neurotechnology company has successfully implanted the first brain chip inside a human. Let’s get into it.
On 30th January this year, Musk announced that they had started clinical trials and had implanted the first brain chip in a human. Now there has been some progress in that regard. Let me tell you more about it. But here’s a spoiler: we don’t know a lot of details as to what’s going on with the study.
During an X(Formerly Twitter) Spaces event, Elon Musk gave an update on the trial patient. He said, “Progress is good, patient seems to have made a full recovery … and is able to control the mouse, move the mouse around the screen just by thinking.” Doesn’t this sound too sci-fi? But it’s happening in reality!
He further added, “We’re trying to get as many button presses as possible from thinking, so that’s what we’re currently working on is — can we get left mouse, right mouse, mouse down, mouse up, which is kind of needed if you want to click and drag something, you need mouse down and to hold on mouse down.”
So we now know that the first human trial participant is able to control a mouse with their brain. More details are still awaited. However, if Neuralink witnesses early success in its first human trial then that would mean a huge deal. It will speed up the process of bringing a potentially life-transforming technology — especially for people unable to move or communicate — out for use.
You can read my previous story on Neuralink to get more details about this project.
