ELON IS MAKIN’ IT BRAIN

First Neuralink patient

Elon Musk announced that his biotech startup Neuralink has inserted a chip implant into the brain of its first human test subject.

The billionaire industrialist, 52, said the patient had the chip surgically implanted into their brain on Sunday and “is recovering well”

“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk wrote on X, the social-media platform he owns.

The US Food and Drug Administration last year approved human trials of Neuralink brain chips (inset) after the company performed hundreds of tests on pigs, sheep and monkeys — and was called out for abuse by animalrights groups in the process.

‘Human-ready product’

“The last two years have been all about focus on building a humanready product,” Neuralink cofounder DJ Seo told Bloomberg News in November. “It’s time to help an actual human being.”

The brain chip — which has 1,000 electrodes — is meant to allow people to wirelessly perform computer functions by mentalizing what they’d like to do through a “think-and-click” mechanism. In December, the company said it was looking for quadriplegic subjects under 40 years old to participate in human trials. It also said a surgeon would remove part of the test patient’s skull before a 7-foot-tall robot named R1 would take over — to implant 64 threads lined with electrodes into the brain.

The electrodes are programmed to gather data about the brain, including neural activity attached to movement intention. These neural signals recorded by the electrodes would then be sent back to Neuralink computers for decoding. “The short-term goal of the company is to build a generalized brain interface and restore autonomy to those with debilitating neurological conditions and unmet medical needs,” Seo, who also holds the title of vice president for engineering, told Bloomberg News. “Then, really, the long-term goal is to have this available for billions of people and unlock human potential and go beyond our biological capabilities.”

The trial is expected to take about six years to complete.