During a presentation by Musk’s company Neuralink, the billionaire said that his brain chip company is set to begin human trials in six months; Moreover, he also mentioned his plans saying that he plans to get one of the chips himself. “We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human,” Musk said during the brief.
Neuralink’s Chip to Restore Full Body Functionality
The brain chip company has said that its device will be able to restore a person’s vision, even in those who were born blind, and restore “full body functionality,” including movement and verbal communication, for people with severed spinal cords. The company claims that the chip functions by targeting the brain’s motor cortex – a part of the brain that generates signals to direct the body’s movement.
“The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel,” said Musk. Chen, who specializes in BCIs, said, “There’s quite a few disorders, such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s and obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which people have received brain implants and the disorders have been treated quite successfully, allowing them to have an improved quality of life.”
Pending FDA Approval
It must be noted that none of Musk’s company products is approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Technically, Musk does not have permission from the FDA to sell the device; however, the world’s richest man has said that most of the FDA paperwork for approval to implant the device into a human being has been submitted. He stated, “Obviously, we want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device in a human, but we’re submitted, I think, most of our paperwork to the FDA.”
Also read: Normal People Won’t Want Neuralink Chips in their Brain: Mark Zuckerberg
