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For six years now, Elon Musk has been working on a chip called Neuralink, with great ambitions. He believes, thanks to this tool, to be able to cure blindness, make paralyzed people walk again or even allow them to communicate with computers by thought. Where is the research around this brain implant? Let’s do a check in.
Elon Musk knows how to talk about him. After his takeover of the social network Twitter, which caused a lot of ink to flow, the boss of Testa and Space X returned to the front of the stage a few days ago to discuss the development of his future brain implant, put developed by his neurotechnology company Neuralink.
A chip to cure handicaps
Elon Musk’s goal is to create a kind of brain-computer interface, to help paralyzed people communicate and allow the blind to regain their sight.
“Even if someone was never able to see, as if they were born blind, we believe we can still restore vision. And as miraculous as it sounds, we believe it is possible to restore full body functionality to someone who has a severed spinal cord.“explains Elon Musk.
Other purposes of this implantable chip include saving memories and treating mental illnesses like depression.
The Neuralink chip is a chip made up of wires. In theory, it should be implanted by a robot, instead of a “piece of brain”. “It’s like replacing a piece of the skull with a smartwatch” further details ElonMusk, who specifies that this implantation would only take 30 minutes, on an outpatient basis and without general anesthesia.
The chip’s electrodes would then be able to read the signals from the neurons to perform certain tasks afterwards, whether muscle movements or external technologies, such as a computer or a smartphone.
Neuralink soon to be tested in humans?
For the time being, the tests carried out for this electronic chip have only been carried out in animals, without much success for the moment… and with several complaints from associations concerning the treatment reserved for these guinea pigs.
Despite this, Elon Musk says the technology could soon be tested in humans. To support his claims, the tech mogul says he submitted “most” documents for US regulatory approval to begin human trials and explains that he could be a candidate to have this implant placed.
No information from the American health authorities has confirmed his remarks, which on reading the available results, appear optimistic to say the least.