On Friday,Neuralink, the neuroscience company backed by Elon Musk based in Fremont, California in the San Francisco Bay Area, broadcasted a live demo with pigs to showcase its embedded brain-computer interface solution.
Neuralink was founded in 2016 and has $158 million in funding from CEO and Co-founder Elon Musk according to Crunchbase. Neuralink is building a brain-machine interface as well as a little robot that installs it into your skull.
Described as “like a Fitbit for your brain”, Elon Musk conducted a live demonstration of a device created by his brain-machine interface startup, Neuralink. The coin-size chip plans to link computers to human brains to help address neurological diseases and injuries.
In a live-streamed event that began characteristically late, Musk unveiled three not-so-little pigs: one that did not have an implant from his brain-computer interface company, Neuralink; one that had been implanted in the past; and Gertrude, who currently has a prototype of the device.
The presentation came more than a year after Musk first introduced his plan for a new kind of implantable computer chip.
“I’m really excited to show you what we’ve got,” Musk said. “I think it’s going to blow your mind.” Neuralink is focused on producing an implanted device to solve a myriad of brain and spine disorders ranging from memory loss to brain damage. “The neurons are like wiring, and you kind of need an electronic thing to solve an electronic problem,” he said.
“All of your senses-your sight, hearing, feeling, pain-these are all electrical signals sent by neurons to your brain,” continued Musk. “And if you can correct these signals, you can solve everything from memory loss, hearing loss, blindness, paralysis, depression, insomnia, extreme pains, seizures, anxiety, addiction, strokes, brain damage-these can all be solved with an implantable neural link.”
According to Musk, current medical research says that reading neurons in a person’s brain is possible and he mentioned the Utah Array as a proof-of-concept. “But it’s kind of like a bed of rigid spikes that is literally inserted with an air hammer-so you know, it’s slightly discomforting, I think,” he said. “There’s wires and a box on your head, so there’s some infection risk. And obviously, it would look pretty weird if you’re walking around with boxes on your head.”
Regarding deep brain stimulation technology where electrodes are inserted in the brain, Musk says, “It’s a bit like kicking the T.V.-which does work, but not always, and it has limitations.” As an example, Musk cites the inability to read or write high-bandwidth information using deep brain stimulation. “Nonetheless, this has greatly helped over 150,000 people, so actually despite being somewhat of a brute force approach, it has been very effective for a lot of people, and this is what is currently available,” said Musk.
Why show pigs when you’re developing a product aimed at humans?
“Pigs are actually quite similar to people. If we’re going to figure out things for people, then pigs are a good choice,” Musk explained during a question-and-answer session after the pig reveal, soon adding, “If the device is lasting in the pig, as it lasted in there for two months and going strong, then that’s a good sign the device is robust for people.”
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