Elon Musk wants to read your mind
We all know Elon Musk to be a very ambitious guy. I mean, seriously, the guy has a company which specializes in electric car manufacturing, you’ve heard of Tesla, right? He also runs an aerospace manufacturing and space transportation services company called SpaceX. I am sure you’ve heard about it in the news or somewhere else. No, No, there’s more. SolarCity, a solar energy company, now owned by Tesla. The Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunnel construction company. Open AI, an artificial intelligence company. He is also the creator and founding father of the Hyperloop concept. Wait, I forgot to mention the one this whole blog is about. Neuralink, a neurotechnology company, developing implantable brain–machine interfaces. I mean, what is this guy going to be working on next? The Iron Man armor suit?
Musk’s Neuralink has been silently working on brain-machine interfaces for a while, his goal is to merge the human brain with AI for superhuman cognition. What does this mean? Well, much like what we are used to seeing in sci-fi movies like Iron Man or Ex Machina, we will be able to control our smartphones and computers with our mind. Yes, mind control.
Neuralink has managed to achieve a technological advancement in brain implant tech by manufacturing flexible threads that can be implanted into the brain. These threads are thinner than a hair strand at only 4 to 6 μm in width. These flexible threads are less likely to damage the brain compared to the materials currently used in brain-machine interfaces. According to Musk these threads are capable of transferring a higher volume of data, as many as 3,072 electrodes per array distributed across 96 threads. What’s more amusing is the robot they’ve managed to put together to implant these threads in to the brain. The robot is really small and the needle, even smaller. To put it in perspective, take a look at this image.
That’s not the only application of Neuralink’s technology. Musk believes that these implants can also be used to help people with paralysis become able to control things with the help of their thoughts. Musk claims that they have successfully completed tests on a monkey and has requested US regulators to allow them to start human trials by next year. Musk also mentioned in the conference, “the main reason for doing this presentation is recruiting.” This obviously means that he wants more people to come and work with him at Neuralink, to develop this technology. Later in the conference, Max Hodak, president of Neuralink, also came on and mentioned how he did not believe in this tech, initially, but Musk managed to convince him that it would be possible. In an interview with The New York Times, Neuralink scientists stated that they want to use laser technology to get through the skull rather than drilling holes.
During the course of the event, Musk also felt the need to mention, “It’s not going to be suddenly Neuralink will have this neural lace and start taking over people’s brains.” He also added that he wants “to achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” Max Hodak stated, “Neuralink didn’t come out of nowhere, there’s a long history of academic research here.” Neuralink has developed a custom chip which is capable of producing better results in terms of reading, cleaning up, and amplifying signals from the brain. As of now, it is only capable of transmitting data over a wired connection (using USB-C), but they are working towards a completely wireless approach. They are also developing something they call the ‘N1 Sensor’ which will help them fulfill their wireless aspirations. Though, the wireless devices might not be able to read as many neurons as the wired version is likely to. Neuralink intends to implant four of these sensors, three in motor areas and one in a somatosensory area. These sensors will connect wirelessly to an external device mounted behind the ear, which will contain the only battery. “It will be controlled through an iPhone app,” Hodak said.
Their goal is to make this process painless and non-invasive, something like the ‘Lasik Surgery’. Though, they do infer that the first patient will not be lucky enough to experience a painless process.
