Musk’s Neuralink hopes to implant chips in human brain in 6 months

Firm developing implants that may restore movement in the paralysed

Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp. aims to start putting its coinsized computing brain implant into human patients within six months, the company announced at an event at its Fremont, Calif. headquarters on Wednesday evening.

Neuralink has been refining the product, which consists of a tiny device and electrode-laced wires, along with a robot that carves out a piece of a person’s skull and implants it into the brain. Ongoing discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration have gone well enough for the company to set a target of its first human trials within the next six months, according to Musk.

In typical fashion for an Elon Musk venture, Neuralink is already bounding ahead, aiming implants at other parts of the body. During the event, Musk revealed work on two major products in addition to the brain-computer interface. It’s developing implants that can go into the spinal cord and potentially restore movement in someone suffering from paralysis. And it has an ocular implant meant to improve or restore human vision.

"As miraculous as that may sound, we are confident that it is possible to restore full-body functionality to someone who has a severed spinal cord," Musk said at the event. Turning to Neuralink’s vision work, he added that “even if they have never seen before, we are confident they could see.”

The goal of the brain-computer interface, known as a BCI, is initially to allow a person with a debilitating condition — such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or suffering the aftereffects of a stroke — to communicate via their thoughts.

“AS MIRACULOUS AS THAT MAY SOUND, WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO RESTORE FULL-BODY FUNCTIONALITY TO SOMEONE WHO HAS A SEVERED SPINAL CORD” ELON MUSK

Founder, Neuralink