Elon Musk makes promises again (which he probably won’t be able to keep).
The billionaire, who claimed Tesla’s Cybertruck would begin production this year (spoiler alert: This is not the case) and who also proclaimed that he had make your own smartphone if you had to (spoiler alert: he probably won’t), has now made perhaps its highest business claim yet. Neuralink, Musk’s biotech company that specializes in making brain chips to restore functionality to disabled bodies, would soon begin testing on human subjects.
As reported by BloombergMusk made the statement during a nearly three-hour Neuralink recruiting event on Wednesday, the entirety of which can be viewed on Youtube. During the event, Musk hinted that human trials could begin within the next six months pending U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the device, which has roughly the size of a small stack of coins and would be implanted in the brain through surgery. – efficient robot.
Once implanted, the device would allegedly allow the brain to wirelessly interface with a computer, although Musk said the company was also working on devices to restore vision to blind people and movement to paralyzed people.
Musk even said he would eventually implant one.
The tweet may have been deleted
(opens in a new tab)
There is, of course, Major worries about all of this. The New York Times quoted several experts who suggested that claims such as restoring full vision to blind people are overstated given the current state of technology. An expert also took umbrage at the idea of implanting chips in able-bodied people, as the company’s stated goal is to theoretically restore functionality to those with lost this.
At least a test monkey died as a result of Neuralink’s research as well, so the safety of test subjects is another potential issue to be concerned about. The Bloomberg report said Neuralink has since taken steps to increase the comfort and safety of animal test subjects over time.
As with anything Musk, it’s probably best to take a wait-and-see approach with Neuralink’s promises. After all, it still needs FDA approval to go ahead. You just have to look at the fact that SpaceX hasn’t sent anyone to Mars yet and how you can’t even pay for Twitter Blue right now to understand that these “musky things” take time.
That is, if they happen at all.
