{"id":1525,"date":"2024-01-30T02:39:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T02:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/elon-musk-announces-first-neuralink-wireless-brain-chip-implant\/"},"modified":"2024-01-30T02:39:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T02:39:00","slug":"elon-musk-announces-first-neuralink-wireless-brain-chip-implant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/elon-musk-announces-first-neuralink-wireless-brain-chip-implant\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk announces first Neuralink wireless brain chip implant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk announces first Neuralink wireless brain chip implant<\/p>\n

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\"Neuralink<\/picture><\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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By Patrick Jackson<\/div>\n
BBC News<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Tech billionaire Elon Musk says his Neuralink company has successfully implanted one of its wireless brain chips in a human for the first time. <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Initial results detected promising neuron spikes or nerve impulses and the patient is recovering well, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The company’s goal is to connect human brains to computers and it says it wants to help tackle complex neurological conditions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A number of rival companies have already implanted similar devices. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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BBC News has approached both Neuralink and the US’s medical regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Musk’s company was given permission to test the chip on humans by the FDA in May, a critical milestone after earlier struggles to gain approval.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This gave the green light for the start of the six-year study during which a robot is being used to surgically place 64 flexible threads, thinner than a human hair, on to a part of the brain that controls “movement intention”, according to Neuralink.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The company says that these threads allow its experimental implant – powered by a battery that can be charged wirelessly – to record and transmit brain signals wirelessly to an app that decodes how the person intends to move.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Posting on X, the social media platform he owns which was formerly known as Twitter, Mr Musk said Neuralink’s first product would be called Telepathy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Telepathy, he said, would enable “control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs,” he continued. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Referring to the late British scientist who had motor neurone disease, he added: “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While Mr Musk’s involvement raises the profile of Neuralink, he faces rivals, some of who have a track record dating back two decades. Utah-based Blackrock Neurotech implanted its first of many brain-computer interfaces in 2004.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Precision Neuroscience, formed by a Neuralink co-founder, also aims to help people with paralysis. And its implant resembles a very thin piece of tape that sits on the surface of the brain and can be implanted via a “cranial micro-slit”, which it says is a much simpler procedure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Existing devices have also generated results. In two separate recent US scientific studies, implants were used to monitor brain activity when a person tried to speak, which could then be decoded to help them communicate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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