Elon Musk’s Neuralink Can Now Experiment on Humans
Neuralink is a brain-computer interface company founded by Elon Musk in 2016. It’s no doubt an ambitious undertaking for the South American tech billionaire. Neuralink aims to restore vision, cure paralysis and even help with autism with these devices that can read signals from the neurons and turn them into motor controls. In a demonstration in 2021, Elon Musk showed the world Sake the Monkey using Neuralink to control a keyboard interface to ask for snacks. But that’s not the only thing Neuralink can do.
Engineers at Neuralink suggested that eyesight can be restored in some patients, not by connecting the brain to the eyes but by creating the desired footage in the brain. Using a camera attached to the patient's head, Neuralink can transmit vision and stimulate the necessary neurons to create the desired image.
After a series of semi-successful animal trials, Musk and the company requested approval for human trials. A couple of years later, the FDA finally gave them the green light to experiment with humans. This approval came as a surprise for some as Neuralink had a history of irresponsible animal experiments that caused the death of 25 out of 90 pigs they experimented on.
The employees reported that the trials were rushed and the animals were fit with the wrong-sized chips. Still, after years of examination, the FDA seemed convinced that Neuralink was qualified. What do you think? Was this approval by the FDA irresponsible?
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Neuralink is a brain-computer interface company founded by Elon Musk in 2016. It’s no doubt an ambitious undertaking for the South American tech billionaire. Neuralink aims to restore vision, cure paralysis and even help with autism with these devices that can read signals from the neurons and turn them into motor controls. In a demonstration in 2021, Elon Musk showed the world Sake the Monkey using Neuralink to control a keyboard interface to ask for snacks. But that’s not the only thing Neuralink can do.
Engineers at Neuralink suggested that eyesight can be restored in some patients, not by connecting the brain to the eyes but by creating the desired footage in the brain. Using a camera attached to the patient’s head, Neuralink can transmit vision and stimulate the necessary neurons to create the desired image.
After a series of semi-successful animal trials, Musk and the company requested approval for human trials. A couple of years later, the FDA finally gave them the green light to experiment with humans. This approval came as a surprise for some as Neuralink had a history of irresponsible animal experiments that caused the death of 25 out of 90 pigs they experimented on.
The employees reported that the trials were rushed and the animals were fit with the wrong-sized chips. Still, after years of examination, the FDA seemed convinced that Neuralink was qualified. What do you think? Was this approval by the FDA irresponsible?
Join our YouTube channel by clicking here: https://bit.ly/3asNo2n
Find us on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3PM21xW
Find us on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3t2Huvb
Find us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3wQfXzA
Find us on TikTok: https://bit.ly/3wNsBOu
Get the latest stories: https://interestingengineering.com/
Support IE for high-quality journalism: https://interestingengineering.com/subscribe
