Musk trots out ‘Cypork’ pig with a chip in its brain
Billionaire predicts future of telepathic links, X-ray vision and downloaded memories into implants
ELON MUSK has unveiled a brain implant which he claims is vital to the future of humanity and could allow people to communicate by telepathy, download memories into robots, and develop X-ray “super vision”.
In a video demonstration the billionaire entrepreneur showed off a pig called Gertrude which had one of the coin-sized devices inserted into its head two months ago.
Experts and academics remained cautious about Mr Musk’s claims, while critics dubbed him “Muskenstein” and called the pig “Cypork”.
The potentially revolutionary chip is being developed by Mr Musk’s Neuralink company, which has $158million (£118million) in funding and employs about 100 people.
Mr Musk has been an outspoken doomsayer about the threat artificial intelligence might one day pose to the human race. He believes people could one day be turned into “house cats” by out-of-control computers, and the human brain must be merged with technology to survive. At his brain implant demonstration Mr Musk said: “The future is going to be weird. It’s going to be important from an existential threat perspective to achieve a good AI symbiosis. In the future you will be able to save and replay memories. You could potentially download them into a new body or into a robot body. Over time we could give somebody super vision.”
He said the Neuralink was “going to blow your minds” and was like a “Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires”.
The founder of Tesla and SpaceX also admitted that his claims were “increasingly sounding like a Black Mirror episode”, referring to the science fiction TV series.
A trio of pigs in pens – Gertrude and two animals without brain implants – took part in his demonstration, which was to show that the device had been safely implanted and that signals from it could be read. Mr Musk said: “As you can see, a healthy and happy pig.”
He said the chip could have numerous medical applications in the future, including returning mobility to the paralysed and sight to the blind.
It could also help to cure neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries and memory loss, hearing problems, depression and insomnia.
The Neuralink device was inserted into Gertrude by a surgical robot.
A piece of the pig’s skull was replaced with the disc, and hundreds of wispy electrodes were inserted into its brain. The implant registers nerve activity and relays the information through a Bluetooth wireless signal to a device such as a mobile phone.
Mr Musk said: “It actually fits quite nicely in your skull. It could be under your hair and you wouldn’t know. I could have a Neuralink right now and you wouldn’t know … Maybe I do…”
He said Neuralink engineers were working on encryption to protect people’s data being stolen or implants hacked. In July it received a “breakthrough device” designation from the US Food and Drug Administration, meaning it is able to start clinical trials in humans.
Matthew MacDougall, Neuralink’s head neurosurgeon, said: “Our first trial involves patients with spinal cord injury – paraplegia, tetraplegia. We plan to enrol a small number of patients. You could solve blindness, paralysis.” He said the company wanted to get the price of a brain implant for humans down to a few thousand dollars “inclusive of the automated surgery”, making it similar to the cost of laser eye surgery.