Musk’s plans to trial AI chips in human brains are rejected

ELON MUSK’S attempt to implant microchips into human brains has been rejected by US medical regulators over concerns about the technology’s safety.

Mr Musk’s Neuralink business, which is hoping to insert tiny chips into skulls to treat conditions such as paralysis and blindness, was denied initial permission for clinical trials last year.

US medical regulators were said to have “dozens” of concerns, Reuters reported, which included fears that tiny electrodes could get lodged in other parts of the brain and impair cognitive function or rupture blood vessels.

The chips are designed to be threaded into the brain using tiny filaments and harness artificial intelligence technology to pick up brain activity using a so-called “brain computer interface”.

The chips have been tested on several monkeys and pigs, and used to show off “mind-reading” experiments by Mr Musk. These included demonstrations of several macaque monkeys with Neuralink chips playing computer games such as pong or typing on a keyboard using their minds.

However, Neuralink is under pressure from animal rights activists, who have claimed that Mr Musk’s testing has led to the deaths of hundreds of sheep, pigs and monkeys. Neuralink admitted in February that several experimental animals had been euthanised.

It said: “Two animals were euthanised at planned end dates. Six animals were euthanised at the medical advice of veterinary staff.”

The animals were killed due to device failure, infections and “surgical complications”.

The US Federal Drug Administration rejected Neuralink’s application to hold trials involving humans last year.