Musk: "Neuralink to Implant Second Chip in Human Brain... Around Next Week"

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced on the 10th (local time) that his neurotechnology startup Neuralink plans to perform a second human brain chip implantation around next week.

[Image source=Captured from X (formerly Twitter) live streaming]

According to major foreign media including the economic outlet CNBC, Musk mentioned the timing of the second chip implantation as "the next week or so" during a live stream with Neuralink executives on X (formerly Twitter) that day. He had previously announced the recruitment of a second candidate for the chip implantation developed by Neuralink in May.

Neuralink is developing brain-computer interface (BCI) technology that implants devices enabling people who cannot use their limbs due to brain or spinal cord injuries to control various devices such as phones and computers using only their thoughts. During the live stream, Musk provided an overview of the progress so far and presented future prospects. The 64 threads connecting the BCI device to the brain, implanted in the human brain, are thinner than a human hair and record neural signals through 1,024 electrodes.

During the stream, Musk and Neuralink executives also mentioned the first participant, Norland Arvo. Arvo received the chip implantation in January, but some of the connecting threads had come loose, reducing the amount of data, among other issues. Neuralink executives stated that the problems have since been resolved and that Arvo's current condition is "stable." They also said, "About 15% of the channels implanted in Arvo are functioning normally," and "Despite this, Arvo watches videos, plays chess and video games, sometimes watching videos up to 70 hours a week."

Musk said he hopes Neuralink can apply this technology to patients in their late single digits this year. However, he did not disclose detailed plans on when and where such procedures would take place. He also predicted, "Within a few years, depending on technological advances and regulatory approvals, we will be able to test chip implantation on thousands of people." Furthermore, he emphasized that the long-term goal is "to give people superpowers" and to "mitigate the risks that artificial intelligence (AI) poses to civilization."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.