Elon Musk shows Neuralink brain implant working in a pig

thebackbencgers 😎

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                   IMPLANTED

• The tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on
Friday showed off a pig whose brain he
says has been implanted with a small
computer.
• “We have a healthy and happy pig, initially
shy but obviously high energy and, you
know, kind of loving life, and she’s had the
implant for two months,” Musk said of
Gertrude, the pig.

                             GENIUS

• The billionaire entrepreneur, whose other companies
include Tesla and SpaceX, presented during a live-
stream event to recruit employees for his neuroscience
startup Neuralink.
• He described Gertrude’s coin-sized implant as “a Fitbit in
your skull with tiny wires”.
• Musk co-founded Neuralink in 2016 with the goal of
creating a wireless brain-machine interface, something
scientists hope can help cure neurological conditions.

                          NEURALINK

• In July 2019, Neuralink unveiled a design that involved
implanting tiny electrode “threads” into the brain as well
as another device behind the ear.
• The new device Musk described on Friday is much
smaller, does not require the visible ear device, and
would be implanted in the brain by a surgical robot under
local anesthesia.
• The device is removable, Musk said, and he showed off
another pig, Dorothy, whom he claimed had had one of the devices implanted and subsequently removed.

                      APPLICATIONS

• While most of the near-term practical applications of
wireless brain-machine interfaces are medical, Musk has
also expressed a desire that such devices could help
human intelligence compete with artificial intelligence,
which he considers an “existential threat”.
• Musk did not present any scientific data to support his
claims about the pigs or the devices.
• Neuralink has raised more than $150m in funding,
including $100m from Musk himself. The company
employs roughly 100 people, but could soon expand to
10,000, Musk said at the event.

                          FEASIBLE?

• Neuroscience experts say that while Neuralink’s
mission to read and stimulate brain activity in
humans is feasible, the company’s timeline
appears overly ambitious.
• “Everyone in the field would be very impressed if
they actually showed data from a device
implanted in a human,” said Graeme Moffat, a
University of Toronto neuroscience research
fellow.

                        IMPLANTATION

• Small devices that electronically stimulate nerves and
brain areas to treat hearing loss and Parkinson’s disease
have been implanted in humans for decades.
• Neuroscientists have also conducted brain implant trials
with a small number of people who have lost control of
bodily functions due to spinal cord injuries or
neurological conditions such as strokes.
• Humans in those trials could control robotic limbs or
small objects, such as a computer keyboard or mouse
cursor, but have yet to complete more sophisticated

                              

MUSK

• Most of the current cutting-edgeresearch in brain-
machine interface is conducted on animals, scientists
note, with safety challenges and lengthy regulatory
approval procedures preventing larger human trials.
• Notably, Musk, who has been a frequent source of
misinformation about coronavirus in recent months and
fought to keep his factories open during the pandemic,
did not wear a face mask during his presentation,
despite being in a room with dozens of employees, a
camera crew and veterinary staff. He eventually put on a
mask during a question and answer session.

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