In a live-streamed replace on the tech firm this week, Elon Musk revealed that Neuralink, of which he’s CEO, plans to carry out the second human implant trial someday inside “the subsequent week or so.”
The surgical procedure was initially meant to happen in June however the meant trial participant skilled some well being issues which delayed the process.
The replace, which consisted of Musk and other Neuralink executives live streaming on X, additionally talked about Neuralink’s present sole human participant. Though the implant in Noland Arbaugh suffered a {hardware} failure when several small wires retracted, inflicting a diminished capability of the system, it has been described by the corporate as “roughly very secure.”
Arland gave a rave evaluation concerning the implant and described it as like having “an aim-bot” for gaming in his head.
Improved model of @Neuralink replace
pic.twitter.com/zk3cdbMtEC— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2024
Improving mitigate the chance of failure
Government Dongjin ‘DJ’ Search engine marketing mentioned in the course of the stay stream that “when you do the mind surgical procedure it takes a while for the tissues to come back in and anchor the threads in place, and as soon as that occurs, every little thing has been secure.”
After the detachment, Arbaugh noticed some discount in capability by means of the system. Nevertheless, Neuralink was capable of make some software program changes to extend its performance, modifying the algorithm utilized by the system and restoring the misplaced capability.
The crew mentioned new mitigation measures they are going to take to cut back the chance of this thread retraction occurring in future trials. “In upcoming implants, our plan is to sculpt the floor of the cranium very deliberately to reduce the hole underneath the implant … that may put it nearer to the mind and eradicate a number of the rigidity on the threads,” mentioned Neuralink’s head of neurosurgery, Matthew MacDougall.
Although there has solely been one participant within the trial to this point, with one other deliberate quickly, Musk acknowledged in the course of the Neuralink replace that he hopes to see numbers within the excessive single digits by the top of the yr.
After the live-streamed replace, Musk went on to make some extra outlandish claims in posts on X. He mentioned in the course of the replace that the system would allow “individuals who have misplaced limbs will be capable of transfer their new prosthetic limbs sooner than they may have ever been capable of earlier than they misplaced the limb,” later adding in a post “I feel cybernetic superpowers are possible sooner or later”.
He additionally acknowledged that paralysis is a “powerful downside, however finally solvable,” and that controlling epilepsy is “one of many future functions” of Neuralink. It’s unclear at current what, if any, analysis has been carried out into these functions of the system.