Elon Musk Ventures Into Uncharted Territory with First-Ever Human Brain Tech Implant

Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink, has achieved a big success by putting a high-tech device into a person’s brain for the first time. According to Musk’s update on X (formerly Twitter), the patient is recovering well. Neuralink has been working on a special brain implant to help people with severe paralysis control devices using their thoughts.

The journey to this achievement started with Neuralink looking for volunteers for its first human trial last fall, after getting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May. Elon Musk announced on Monday that Neuralink’s first product is called “Telepathy.”

This technology has the potential to help people with conditions like ALS, which affects muscles and can cause problems with speaking and moving. If successful, the implant could allow patients to communicate or use social media by just thinking about it. Elon Musk gave an example of Stephen Hawking communicating faster than a professional typist or auctioneer.

While this human trial is a big step for Neuralink, the company still has to go through a strict process to make this technology available to the public. This process includes collecting a lot of data and testing before getting final approval from the FDA. The number of people in the initial trial is not disclosed, and Neuralink hasn’t responded to CNBC’s questions about the recent procedure.

Neuralink is a major player in the emerging brain-computer interface (BCI) field, where Elon Musk’s involvement brings a lot of attention. Other companies in this industry, like Synchron, Precision Neuroscience, Paradromics, and Blackrock Neurotech, are also working on similar systems.

Paradromics plans to start its trial with people in the next few months, Precision Neuroscience finished its first study with people last year, and Synchron’s BCI was used by a patient to post on Twitter in 2021. The competition among these companies to be the leader in this innovative field is still uncertain, with no clear winner identified yet.