Elon Musk announced that his start-up Neuralink placed a first brain implant on a human patient last Sunday (January 28, 2024). Tests that have been widely criticized internationally had previously been carried out on animals. During these tests, the start-up notably implanted the device in the brain of a macaque, which managed to play the video game Pong only by thought. According to a post written on X by the tycoon, the first results already show promising neuronal activity.
Neuralink: cure the incurable, improve the imperfect
Here comes. Elon Musk said it and did it. Like a modern-day Julius Caesar, the entrepreneur with 1000 controversies kept his bet to launch the first trials of his Neuralink chip in humans in 2024. After obtaining the agreement of the American Federal Agency for Food and drug (FDA), Neuralink was able to implant its chip on a first patient last Sunday.
The medical biotechnology market, which concerns this type of innovative devices, is already very popular with certain pioneers. In 2019, researchers attached to the Clinatec research center in Grenoble had already imagined a similar chip, which would allow a paralyzed person to move their limbs using an exoskeleton.
With a width of one centimeter, the Neuralink chip aims not only to make quadriplegic patients walk, but also aims to restore sight to the blind and tackle certain psychiatric pathologies. According to the start-up, it would ultimately be possible to improve the condition of patients suffering from schizophrenia, depression or individuals affected by autism spectrum disorders. Let us remember that to date, schizophrenia is a mental pathology which has no therapeutic path leading to definitive cure, and that autism consists of a neurodevelopmental disorder. By definition, Neuralink aims to provide clinical solutions to still unresolved problems, which will lead medicine to take a big step forward in the coming years.
A step forward not without risks
It is certain that on paper, Neuralink can bring unprecedented innovation to medicine and the comfort of life of the patients concerned, but its project is not without risks. Remember that the start-up has been at the heart of a controversy, targeted by accusations of animal abuse, but above all for having covered up the deaths of more than 1,500 animals during its trials since 2018.
Likewise, if Elon Musk aspires to offer his implant to all individuals on the planet, his motivations are no less obscure. According to the entrepreneur, it would be a question of better communicating with the computers in order to better control them with regard to the “risk for our civilization” what would artificial intelligence pose? Recent events are almost like a science fiction film and there are many disaster scenarios resulting from widespread implementation. Let’s hope from now on that the most dramatic synopses will stay in the minds of film directors.