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Elon Musk’s Neuralink to conduct human trials in 2023
Neuralink owner Elon Musk announced that he has submitted paperwork to the FDA, which he hopes will allow Neuralink to undertake human trials in 2023. The company is developing brain-implant technology that aims to allow the brain to control devices through thought alone, in an attempt to treat patients with brain disorders or paralysis.
The technology has already been utilised in animal tests, with a monkey playing a game of Pong by just thinking about it in April 2021. More recently, though, a monkey has been shown using thought to move a cursor around a keyboard and create words: Musk has called this “telepathic typing.” He continued, explaining the potential benefits of this technology so that “someone with no interface with the outside world [can] control their phone better than someone who has working hands.”
There is a hope that as technology advances, there may be a version of Neuralink that will one day allow paraplegics to walk and blind patients to see, however it appears that this may be in the distant future at this stage of the device’s development.
It is worth noting that other companies have also been working on similar technology, with some making significant progress.
“We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human, but we’ve submitted most of our paperwork to the FDA and we think probably in about six months we should be able to have our first Neuralink in a human,” Musk said. However, he has also stated that he would “feel comfortable” implanting the device into one of his own children if they needed, continuing: “At least in my opinion, it would not be dangerous.”