Elon Musk says Neuralink has implanted a computer chip in someone’s brain

Elon Musk’s Neuralink has attached a computer to someone’s brain, he has said.

Neuralink hopes to build a brain-computer interface that can be implanted in humans. That would allow them to interact with a computer just using their thoughts, and vice versa.

Now Mr Musk says the system has been trialled in a human. Until now, the system has only been tested on animals.

Davos Forum Global Inequality (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

“The first human received an implant from Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The system was already detecting activity in the person’s brain, he suggested. “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.”

Mr Musk gave no further details about the experiment, including who the first recipient was or what the technology involved. After the announcement, he returned to tweeting about gaming.

Neuralink said last year that it had begun recruiting for the first human trials of its technology. At the time, it suggested it was looking for people who “have quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)”.

Neuralink was formed in 2016, in the hope of creating a new way for humans to interface with machines. Mr Musk has suggested it could offer a way for people to integrate virtual reality with their own brains, for instance.

Since it was created, Neuralink has remained largely secretive about its work. But it has revealed that it requires a set of small probes that are inserted into the brain to see neuron activity – which may be done by a specially designed robot.

It has also revealed successful tests, including a monkey playing Pong using the system. It has however received criticism over its use of animal testing.