Musk says first Neuralink implant given
According to Elon Musk, the first human received an implant from his computer-brain interface company Neuralink over the weekend.
In a Monday post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Musk said that the patient received the implant the day prior and was “recovering well.” He added that “initial results show promising neuron spike detection.”
The billionaire, who cofounded Neuralink, did not provide additional details about the patient. When Neuralink announced in September that it would begin recruiting people, the company said it was searching for individuals with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking the nervous system to computers, efforts aimed at helping treat brain disorders, overcoming brain injuries and other applications. There are more than 40 brain computer interface trials underway, according to clinicaltrials.gov.
Neuralink reposted Musk’s Monday post on X, but did not publish any additional statements acknowledging the human implant. The company did not immediately respond to
The Associated Press’ requests for comment Tuesday.
Neuralink previously announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its “investigational device exemption,” which generally allows a sponsor to begin a clinical study “in patients who fit the inclusion criteria,” the FDA said Tuesday. The agency pointed out that it can’t confirm or disclose information about a particular study.
Neuralink’s device is about the size of a large coin and is designed to be implanted in the skull, with ultra-thin wires going directly into the brain. In its September announcement, Neuralink said the wires would be surgically placed in a region of the brain that controls movement intention. The initial goal of the so-called brain computer interface is to give people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.
In a separate Monday post on X, Musk said that the first Neuralink product is called “Telepathy” — which, he said, will enable users to control their phones or computers “just by thinking.” He added that initial users would be those who have lost use of their limbs.
It’s unclear how well this device or similar interfaces will ultimately work, or how safe they might be. Clinical trials are designed to collect data on safety and effectiveness.
In response to Musk’s Monday announcement, King’s College London professor Anne Vanhoestenberghe noted that Neuralink has joined a “rather small group” of companies that
increased the number of items it delivered the same day — or overnight — in the U.S. by more than 65% year-over-year. More than 70% of Prime orders arrived the same day or the next across the Atlantic in the U.K.
Overall, Amazon said it delivered 7 billion items with sameor next-day shipping last year. The company declined to provide comparable figures on shipping data from 2022.
The e-commerce giant has credited speedier deliveries to
improvements in inventory management and growth in its same-day delivery sites. The company currently has 55 of these sites in metro areas across the U.S. with plans to add more in the coming years.
Faster shipping is also being driven by a new operations network, which splits the country up into smaller regions and ships items from those areas. The new model — which follows a pandemic boom in the company’s logistics footprint and subsequent cutbacks — also helps Amazon cut down on costs since packages travel a shorter distance and have fewer touchpoints.
Sarah Mathew, Amazon’s vice president for delivery experience, said in an interview that the online retailer is continuously analyzing its regions — including the buildings and inventories within them — and plans to refine it to better serve customers.
But despite Amazon’s focus on speed, some rural Prime customers have complained about slower delivery speeds.
The company relies on independent contractors as well as carriers like UPS to ship orders to customers. It’s also been recruiting small businesses that
can help it deliver directly to hard-to-reach rural areas.
When asked about rural deliveries, Mathew said the company is paying attention to anecdotal customer experiences but doesn’t see a “general trend” showing a slowdown.
Amazon’s focus on speed has put it in the crosshairs of labor advocates, who argue the company’s fast-paced warehouses lead to more injuries among warehouse workers. The company’s latest data from 2022 shows the rate of injuries or illness that occurred among Amazon’s U.S. workforce fell that year. But it was still higher than
it was in 2020.
Last year, Amazon began testing a robotic storage system called Sequoia, which puts inventory into totes and presents it to employees so they don’t have to bend or stretch as much. The company says the robot also reduces the time it takes to process an order by 25%.
Amazon is planning to roll out Sequoia to more warehouses this year. It declined to say how many facilities will benefit from it.
Other retailers, including Walmart and Target, have also been working to achieve faster shipments for online orders.