Neuralink owner Elon Musk said paperwork for human trials has been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which he claimed may lead to human trials of the corporate’s brain-implant technology “in about six months.”
Neuralink, which Musk founded in 2016, is developing a system that directly links the human brain to a pc interface. It believes the technology, a part of which is implanted directly into the brain, will at some point allow the human mind to manage gadgets and programs merely through thought, potentially opening up an entire recent world for individuals with brain disorders and conditions comparable to paralysis.
In April 2021, Neuralink demonstrated early trials of the technology by showing a monkey playing a game of Pong just by excited about it.
This time, at a special show-and-tell event held on Wednesday evening, a recent video showed a unique monkey using thought processes to maneuver a mouse cursor around a keyboard while also making selections to create words. Describing the monkey’s actions as “telepathic typing,” Musk said the demonstration raises the potential of “someone with no interface with the surface world [being able] to manage their phone higher than someone who has working hands.” You’ll be able to watch the monkey in motion within the video below:
Neuralink Show and Tell, Fall 2022
Musk said he believed Neuralink’s technology was now at some extent where human trials can be secure, going thus far as to say that if considered one of his own children suffered an accident where Neuralink’s technology could potentially help, he would “feel comfortable” going ahead with the implant, adding, “No less than for my part, it might not be dangerous.”
The Neuralink co-founder has said previously that future, more advanced versions of the technology may even have the option to operate in a way that may enable paraplegics to walk again.
But, after all, regulators could have the ultimate say on its use, with Neuralink hoping to get the green light from the FDA next yr to take its technology to the following level.
Musk was also keen to deal with concerns about animal welfare throughout the presentation. He described the monkeys getting used by Neuralink as “pleased” and said they’re not “strapped to a chair” when carrying out tasks that also involve regular food-based rewards. He added that before considering putting a Neuralink device inside an animal’s brain, “we do every part we possibly can with rigorous benchtop testing, so we’re not cavalier in putting devices into animals. We’re extremely careful and we at all times want the device — at any time when we do the implant — to be confirmatory, not exploratory.”
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