It seems that more and more people are lining up for Elon Musk’s Neuralink implants. Check out the fresh reports about this intriguing issue below.
Neuralink is coming
According to a recent report by Ashlee Vance, one of Elon Musk’s biographers, thousands of people have shown interest in receiving Neuralink’s brain implants.
Vance, who has visited Neuralink’s facilities 10 times in three years, mentioned that while the company is yet to implant its device in a human, it plans to operate on 11 people next year and more than 22,000 by 2030.
Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration granted Neuralink, which Musk co-founded in 2016, approval to launch human trials of its device.
Musk has described the device as a “Fitbit in your skull.” The FDA had initially rejected Neuralink’s bid for human testing in March, citing safety concerns.
These included the possibility of wires connected to the brain chip moving within a subject’s head or the chip overheating.
Neuralink, a company founded by Elon Musk, announced in September that it had started recruiting participants for its first human trial.
The company is looking for individuals with paralysis in all four limbs due to a spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The goal is to eventually develop a device that will allow humans to communicate with machines using their thoughts, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two.
However, before achieving this, Neuralink aims to help individuals with neurological disorders. Musk has cited competition from other brain-computer startups such as Synchron and Onward, which have already commenced human trials.
“They are currently kicking our ass,” Musk said after Synchron implanted its first device in a US patient in July 2022.
Musk has also stated the fact that Neuralink needed to pick up its pace “like the world is coming to an end” to keep up with artificial intelligence and the possibility of an AI being that wouldn’t be friendly to humans.
