Neuralink first implanted a chip into a human brain

The American company Neuralink, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, used a chip in the human brain for the first time.

“Yesterday, the first person received an implant from Neuralink and is successfully recovering. Initial results showed encouraging neural impulses,” – wrote Musk on social network X, formerly Twitter.

In September 2023, the company received approval to test the new technology on humans and began recruiting patients. According to the description of the procedure on the Neuralink website, during the operation, the robot places a chip in the area of ​​the brain that controls the intention to move. Once installed, the chip will record and transmit brain signals to an app that deciphers movement intent.

First of all, the company plans to give people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using only thoughts.

Previously, Musk’s company demonstrated the results of implanting Neuralink into the brains of experimental animals – pigs and monkeys. In the pig, the chip controlled the nerves responsible for leg movements and snout sensitivity. He allowed the monkey to play video games “with the power of thought”.

Elon Musk himself sees in the use of neurochips an opportunity to cure many diseases – from blindness to alcohol addiction. Also, in his opinion, Neuralink will be able to communicate with an application in a smartphone, allow a person to drive a “smart” car without touching the steering wheel, access the Internet or play computer games directly “from the head”.

Critics of the program draw attention to the fact that any foreign body in the brain is a risk of infection and inflammation. It is also unknown what the consequences will be if the microcomputer breaks. In addition, during the development of the chip, the Neuralink company has repeatedly reported the death of test animals in the process of testing. The businessman assured that “not a single monkey died because of the chip injection.” According to him, the tests were carried out on monkeys “in a near-death state”, according to Musk, in order to “minimize the risk to healthy monkeys”.