No idea seems too daring for him: Elon Musk wants to help sick people with the help of a device that connects neurons in the human brain to a smartphone. When introducing the innovative implant, pigs have to be used first.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is making headway on his plan to create an electronic connection to the human brain. Musk presented the prototype of a device from his company Neurolink that can transmit information between neurons and a smartphone. It is roughly the size of a coin and should be positioned in the skull. Except for a small scar under the hair, there was no trace, Musk said.
Neurolink implants the devices in pigs. Musk showed one of the animals in which impulses were transmitted from the trunk. Every time the pig touched something with it, electrical signals could be seen on the screen. In the case of a pig on the treadmill, information from the device could be used by software to predict when which joint would be activated.
Musk and Neurolink see potential areas of application for the technology in humans, for example in combating pain or visual disturbances, as well as in spinal cord injuries. In the future, it would be conceivable to use the technology to bridge injured nerve tissue so that people could walk again, Musk said.
Neurolink developed a robot for implantation in the brain. The device in the head should communicate with an app on the smartphone via Bluetooth radio and be charged wirelessly. "It's like a Fitbit with fine wires in your head," Musk tried to explain by comparing it with the fitness trackers that are usually stuck in a bracelet.
Neurolink hopes to reduce costs, including surgery, to a few thousand dollars over time. Musk did not mention a period of time to achieve this goal. The billionaire, who is also the head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the space company SpaceX, has been emphasizing for some time that people will have to connect their brains to computers in the future in order to keep up with the coming artificial intelligence.
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