The chip will allow people to communicate with electronic devices through thought
During a video interview with The Wall Street Journal, broadcast lives a few days ago, billionaire Elon Musk, also the owner of companies like Tesla or Space X , assured that his company Neuralink is ready to start implanting chips in human brains. in 2022. According to Musk, the first to receive them will be quadriplegic people or people with serious spinal cord injuries, who thanks to the chip will be able to communicate with all kinds of electronic devices using only their thoughts.
Founded by Musk in 2016, Neuralink ‘s objective is precisely the development of ‘nanotechnology’ that allows humans to connect with machines.
Until now, Neuralink had only tested its chip with monkeys, and according to the tycoon, all the tests have been successfully passed.
An example of this is the video published by Neuralink on April 9, in which it is seen how a monkey is capable of playing a video game using only its mind.
“We are doing a lot of testing,” Musk said, “and confirming that the Neuralink device is safe and reliable and can be safely removed.” However, before taking the step, Musk must have the approval of the FDA (Food and Drugs Administration), the US government agency that regulates and authorizes medicines, food and cosmetics in the United States. In this regard, Musk was very confident since, he said, Neuralink’s standards are “substantially higher than what the FDA requires.”
In a tweet posted by Musk just a day after the interview, the billionaire said “Replacing faulty/missing neurons with circuitry is the right way to think about it. Many problems can be solved simply by connecting signals between existing neurons. Progress will accelerate when we have devices in humans (it’s hard to have nuanced conversations with monkeys) next year.”
Previously, Musk had already announced deadlines and dates that in the end were not met. In 2019, in effect, he assured that the first human trials would be carried out in 2020, and in February of this year he said that these tests would be carried out at the end of 2021. Now, the deadline is extended again until 2022 .
It so happens that there are other companies that have the same objective as Neuralink, and that at least one of them, called Synchron, a small biotech company with just 20 employees, already obtained FDA authorization last July. .
