Elon Musk’s Neuralink recently released a video introducing the first human with its brain-computer interface, but is it really safe? Can it read your mind? Is this a breakthrough achievement or is it brainwashing?
The chip was implanted in a man identified as 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, who said he was injured in a diving accident that paralyzed him below the shoulders. According to him, Neuralink’s brain implant has allowed him to use the computer and play games such as chess and Civilization VI using only his brain. Musk described it as a form of “telepathy.”
Kip Ludwig, co-director of the Wisconsin Institute for Translational Neuroengineering, told Reuters that the achievement is not a “breakthrough” because many other companies, such as BlackRock and Syncrhon, have also released demos of brain-computer interfaces with paralyzed patients.
So far, it appears that the patient is healthy and the brain-computer is safe. But there have been serious concerns about Neuralink’s practices and lack of transparency. A report by Wired found that some monkeys used in Neuralink’s experiments had to be euthanized after suffering brain hemorrhages, “bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also found quality control problems in the company’s animal experiments.
The brain implant appears to detect eye movements to communicate with a computer, and it also reads brain signals and translates them into action on the computer.
According to The Verge, Neuralink was originally pitched as an assistive technology, but recently Musk has floated the idea of using the brain implant on healthy people to enhance their abilities.
This is just the first step, the brain implant is still in its early stages and there is still a lot of research to be done and more patients to be observed.
