Neuralink. Elon Musk announced that the first brain transplant has been performed

Elon Musk announced Monday, January 29, 2024 that the start-up Neuralink, of which he is a co-founder, performed its first brain transplant on a patient on Sunday, an operation that has been performed many times by other companies and researchers. .

Based in Fremont (California), a suburb of San Francisco, Neuralink received the green light from the US Drug and Medical Devices Regulatory Agency, the FDA, in May.

His implant, the size of a coin, has already been placed in the brain of a macaque, which has managed to play the video game “Pong” without a controller or keyboard.

“First results show promising neuronal activity”Elon Musk on X (formerly Twitter) wrote about the implant on a patient.

“LThe first Neuralink product is called Telepathy »he added. “It allows you to control your phone or computer, and through them, almost any device, just by thinking about it. The first users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs. Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a typist or an auctioneer. That’s the point.”.

Founded in 2016, Neuralink is far from the first to install a brain implant, also called a brain-machine interface (BMI), on a human.

Animate the exoskeleton

In September, the Dutch company Onward announced that it was testing the connection of a second brain implant that stimulates the spinal cord with the aim of allowing a quadriplegic patient to regain mobility.

In early 2019, researchers at the Grenoble Clintech Institute presented an implant that, once installed, allows a quadriplegic to animate an exoskeleton and move their arms or move around.

Neuralink recently raised approximately $323 million from investors in two rounds in August and November.

Neuralink says it wants to make paralyzed patients walk again, but also restore sight to blind people and treat mental illnesses like depression.

Elon Musk aims to better communicate with computers and, according to him, offer his implants to everyone. “A Threat to Our Civilization” which creates artificial intelligence.