Science

Elon Musk to reveal major updates regarding Neuralink later this week

by on

More in Science:

PHOTO CREDITS: SAUL MARTINEZ/GETTY IMAGES 

According to Business Standard, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that he plans to reveal a key update on his brain-machine interface company Neuralink this week and may announce human trials for the technology that has been successful on mice and even apes. ~

While the exact update is still speculative, a live demonstration of neuron firing activity has been confirmed. Musk tweeted last month, “Will show neurons firing in real-time on August 28th. The matrix in the matrix” (Business Standard). ~

According to the company website, Neuralink is currently “developing ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.” This brain-machine interface will be administered through a new Neuralink chip that Musk claims to have many benefits to the people who decide to use them. “This has the potential to solve several brain-related diseases. The idea is to understand and treat brain disorders, preserve and enhance your own brain and create a well-aligned future,” Musk told the audience at the Neuralink launch event last year. Musk has claimed that the chip will allow users to hear sounds that previously were impossible to human ears. He also confirmed that the chip would be able to control hormone levels, which would have the potential to help with anxiety relief, among other things. Additionally, the chip will allow paralyzed people to control devices with their minds rather than the inefficient and user-hostile devices currently used as brain-machine interfaces. ~

The technology has a module that sits outside the head, behind the ear, and receives information from “threads” embedded in the brain. Controlled by an iPhone app, the chip called “N1 sensor” with just a USB port coming out can have as many as 3,072 electrodes per array distributed across 96 “threads” — each “thread” smaller than the tiniest human hair (Business Standard). The chip is expected to be wireless in the future and be able to read and transmit high-volume data as well as amplify signals from the brain. ~

ARTICLE: KYLE SMITH

Leave a Reply