Monkey MindPong https://t.co/7zstTZ1X1w pic.twitter.com/GYrYNsJ68u

— Neuralink (@neuralink) April 8, 2021

Neuralink goes into more detail on their blog about where they implanted the chip and how it works. The monkey, named Pager, had a brain chip implanted in both the left and right side of the motor cortex. The motor cortex oversees bodily movements as well as planning these movements. The chip can take in and send out signals through tiny wires that connect to the brain. Since some neurons are more involved in planning other movements than others, Neuralink can use a device that decodes the “predict the direction and speed of an upcoming or intended movement.” The predictions can then be used to move the Pong paddle.

One can imagine that the constant testing of the brain chip involves a lot of gaming for Pager. The reason Pager has gotten so good at Pong, or “Monkey MindPong,” is that he is rewarded with a banana smoothie through a metal straw. Pager is a simple monkey; he wants his videogames and his snacks too.

So, what can this be used for? The N1-Link being used in this demonstration can be further expanded and be used to help people who have paralysis by giving them the ability to interact with technology efficiently and even faster than people without paralysis. Since the neurons inside of the motor cortex can still plan movements, the person can imagine the movement of a cursor which can then lead to communicating with text. To learn how to make these movements, the company has developed a model of an app that takes the person through the process.

A look into the @neuralink app, on their website. pic.twitter.com/jN2Q8h2K5K

— jordan? (@AstroJordy) September 7, 2020

Neuralink revealed their chip via livestream back in August. They were able to show that the chip could track the brain activity of Gertrude the pig. They were also able to show that the chip can be taken out without any brain damage.

Since then, speculation on the brain chip’s future capabilities have continued. One of the predictions proposed by Lex Fridman, a research scientist at MIT who specializes in artificial intelligence and attended the unveiling event, is that the chip could alleviate human suffering.

Ideas about the future possibilities of the N1-Link and the company itself may seem like technologies of the distant future, but Neuralink has been able to track brain activity to training a monkey to play Pong telepathically in less than a year. There might be a good chance that Neuralink will be looking for volunteers soon.

Though this sounds like all fun and games, brain-chip implantation is no walk in the park due to the high complexity of the human brain. Alongside “neuro lace”, Musk and his team are confident they can develop cutting edge technology capable of a successful implantation procedure. Musk’s vision comes with great reward; however, and he hopes the chip can be used to treat chronic conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and spinal cord injuries. As well as aid to a physically disabled being by allowing them to control their devices with their mind.

Gertrude’s Neuralink

During a webcast presentation for Neuralink, a pig named Gertrude with a brain-chip implanted was linked to a computer screen that recorded the brain activity and data in real time. As she moved through her pen, snacking on food, the display screen showed ebbs and flows of activity in linear formats. When Gertrude would touch her food, the signal would spike, etc,. Though the implantation is showing positive potential for Gertrude and providing activity feedback, it is imperative to keep in mind that researchers and developments are a long way from being able to decode and interpret the brain signals. As previously mentioned, the complexity of the brain makes this no easy task. During the event, Musk avoided all talks of timelines and detailed information on just when Neuralink would be ready for human testing.

Chip Insertion

Industrial design firm Woke Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, designed a surgical ‘sewing machine’ robot to perform brain-chip implantation. This futuristic prototype is designed to seamlessly perform the surgical procedure — and with precision, will carve out a small piece of bone and insert the device with electrodes into an individual’s brain. The robot is designed to deliberately avoid blood vessels and can complete the procedure within only a few hours. A coin-sized chip is inserted under the hair, tucked behind the ear, and goes fashionably unnoticed. Containing over 3,000 electrodes to monitor the activity of thousands of neurons.

Fears of Erosion Raise Question

The ‘sewing machine’ robot prototype is designed to insert and remove the Neuralink without injury. But fears of erosion have merged to surface due to the corrosive environment of the brain. Designers will need to first address these concerns to understand the longevity of the device; to avoid the possibility of continual upkeep. The brain fights off invaders by activating protective cells called glia. Designers will need to perfect the material to avoid corrosion and find ways to resist the possibilities of the brain breaking down the electrodes once glia is present.

Neuralink Recruitment and Funding

With Neuralink being just four years old, the company has raised approximately $158 million through two funding sources. And Musk supports $100 million of that. The company is currently based in San Francisco with 100 employees and has decided to expand in Austin, a currently growing tech hub city. Neuralink is led by Elon Musk and Max Hodak, who serves as co-founder and President of the neurotechnology company. Before Musk was able to acquire Hodak, Hodak graduated from Duke University with a biomedical engineering degree and founded a company of his own, Transcriptic. Transcriptic focused on creating robotic cloud laboratories for biology research.

With the expansion of Neuralink in Austin, Texas, Neuralink has gone through great lengths to grow the team with top scientists and engineers. The decision of expansion comes after Musk decided to open Tesla’s newest gigafactory. The expansion comes with the vision of roughly 10,000 employees — ranging from electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, software developers, neuroengineers, and operations specialists.

Neuralink is not new to the brain-chip evolution; though the company has past research and lab experiments to build upon to expand their efforts. Scientists have been exploring miniature brain implant devices outside the brain such as robotic arms or computer cursors. When Neuralink is ready to begin experimentation, they hope to begin the testing on paralyzed individuals to see if this technology could enable them to operate a computer cursor with only their minds.

With hopes of a successful experimental phase, Musk envisions Neuralink being affordable and reliable for the masses to obtain the device. If Musk’s successes with SpaceX and Tesla provide any indication for this growing neurotechnology company, Neuralink has great potential to be another successful build for the tech giant. It may just be farther on the timeline than anticipated.

For those who don’t know, Neuralink is a company founded in 2016 by Elon Musk. Their mission is, according to their website, building the future of brain interfaces. In their words, they are, “building devices now that will help people with paralysis and inventing new technologies that will expand our abilities, our community, and our world.” Little was known about the company’s advances before the progress update presentation, but the idea of programming mental illness, brain injuries, paralysis, blindness, and others out of the brain using a brain implant kept people’s interest.

The previous design was mostly outside of the body except for tiny wires that would have been inserted. The new and improved chip, called the Link 0.9, is the size of a coin. It will be inserted into the skull but would have the ability to be charged through the skin.

During the presentation, Elon revealed that they have put the implants inside of live pigs. One without a chip, one with a chip, and the other who has had the chip removed. With the help of Gertrude, the pig with the chip implant, the chip was able to track her brain activity as she moved around the pen. Showing one of the pigs with the chip taken out is important because it showed that it is possible to have the link taken out without any brain damage.

The second version of the robot that would insert Link 0.9 was also featured in the presentation. According to CNN, Elon Musk claimed last year that the robot would be able to implant wire threads attached to the Link 0.9 under a person’s skull without hitting blood vessels and causing “minimal trauma.”

Elon also mentioned that the company was given a “breakthrough devices” designation from the FDA back in July and that they are preparing for human implantations, though there was no mention of how soon this will be.

People are wondering about what the future holds for this upcoming technology. It’s not hard to imagine the pros and cons of getting future brain implants. Lex Fridman, according to Medium, is a research scientist at MIT working on artificial intelligence and autonomy in self-driving cars. He was one of the guests invited to the presentation and he made a YouTube video on his channel about how Neuralink could change the world and human condition. Here are some of the ideas he made in his video, The Future of Neuralink:

The first point he brings up is that Neuralink could alleviate human suffering. This was one of the things that the Neuralink team mentioned during a Q and A after the presentation. Since the brain is the main source of pain, he claims that if Neuralink is able to understand how the brain works that is when they could understand, for example, how neurological diseases work. That way we can treat them.

Being able to understand how the mind works ties into his second point: consciousness and intelligence. By studying how the mind works, people can find better ways to create artificial intelligence. Fridman also believes that Neuralink could lead to understanding where intelligence and consciousness arise functionally, figuring out what consciousness is made of, and that consciousness could be studied scientifically rather than philosophically.

Another possibility Fridman brings up is that Neuralink could help give people the ability to move again or see color for the first time. Augmentation of the mind could also happen, like regaining sight and beyond what is humanly possible.

Fridman also mentions that Neuralink could also give people a more captivating experience when it comes to gaming and virtual reality. Videogames have improved drastically. For example, the graphics of Tomb Raider (1996) compared to Batman Arkham Knight (2015) is like night and day. Having a brain interface could give gamers a life-like experience while playing. Having the ability to beat Joker would be revolutionary.

These are just some of the ideas Lex Fridman has for the future of Neuralink. If you want a more in-depth version of his ideas, the link to his video is below.

Yes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 19, 2020

The initial post was from Elon Musk. He was reaching out to potential employees that had solved problems with phones and wearables. He explained in a separate tweet that solving big problems with low cost production is very valuable and that it would solve a lot of brain and spine injuries that would be essential for AI symbiosis.

Solving high-volume, high-reliability, low-cost production problems is especially valued

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2020

This would solve a lot of brain/spine injuries & is ultimately essential for AI symbiosis

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 19, 2020

This goes right along with Tesla’s initial goal of allowing humans the ability to control electronics with their mind. For those who don’t know, Neuralink was created in 2016 and was co-founded by Elon Musk with the plan to make BMI’s, brain machine interfaces. The BMI would connect to the human brain and it would be able to treat brain injuries and neurological disorders. The chip is also important because it would make human beings more like AI when it is implanted in the brain. Elon Musk believes that the development of AI would lead to mass unemployment. In order to compete and survive, humans will have to merge with AI.

On August 2nd, 2019, details about a sensor interface were posted to bioRxiv on Neuralink’s website. The post included a picture of what the sensor could look like:

A packaged sensor device. A. individual neural processing ASIC capable of processing 256 channels of data. This particular packaged device contains 12 of these chips for a total of 3,072 channels. B. Polymer threads on parylene-c substrate. C. Titanium enclosure (lid removed). D. Digital USB-C connector for power and data.

There is little known about the progress of Neuralink, but on July 9th Musk tweeted out Nueralink’s mission statement, “if you can’t beat em, join em,” and when to expect a progress update.

Progress update August 28

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2020

Now, Science Magazine reports that Musk has claimed that we are one year away from making the “6 Million Dollar Man.” He explains that the chip will improve the vision, strength, and fix the injuries a paralyzed person has. He even goes on to say that the chip will allow limb functionality.

“In principle, it can fix almost anything that is wrong with the brain, and it can restore limb functionality. People can walk around and be normal – maybe slightly better – like the six-million-dollar man though these days that would be cheap.”

This chip can also help those who have brain injuries such as epilepsy, stroke, muscle control, memory, and eyesight according to The Sun. The chip will also replace the areas that are damaged from other injuries and diseases.

The development of this chip being done by next year will remain to be seen. But the idea of brain injuries and diseases like Alzheimer’s being prevented would be a giant breakthrough for mankind. At this point, is Elon Musk a genius, a wizard, or both?

Neuralink, a neurotechnology company cofounded by Musk in 2016, develops implantable brain machines interface (BMIs) that could revolutionize the future of humanity. The main objective of Neuralink is to develop BMIs that would connect the human brain with a computer to treat brain injuries and neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Musk further hinted that this chip when implanted in the brain is likely to enable a symbiosis between human and artificial intelligence.

Musk believes that the advancement of artificial intelligence could lead to mass unemployment, therefore, to survive in this competitive world humans need to merge their intelligence with machine intelligence.

Our brain functions with the help of specialized cells called neurons, which communicate with each other at the contact points known as synapses through the aid of neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters are released in response to an action potential. According to Musk, by implanting electrode threads in the brain, Neuralink can detect and record this action potential and can stimulate neurons accordingly. These threads are inserted by robots to minimize the damage to the brain and attached to sensors that can be controlled via smartphone for self-usage.

Musk already told during his Neurolink’s presentation that this technology had allowed a monkey to control a computer with his brain and soon the human trials will commence, mostly within a year. However, the company doesn’t have approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for trials on humans. Initially, the product would solely be focused on offering treatment to patients with brain injuries or neural diseases such as epilepsy and autism. Moreover, it would also help in restoring functionality that the person has lost such as eyesight or hearing and even memory retention in the elderly. It is expected to be the boon for paralyzed people making them self-sufficient in their daily tasks.

Humans have a large dependency on external devices like laptops and smartphones but with a low rate of communication. This AI-symbiosis could allow speedy interactions between the human brain and external devices resulting in enhanced productivity and growth. But the major concern about this technology is security as the implant can be controlled with smartphones, and if by any chance the phone is hacked, the results could be dangerous. Moreover, if this technology reaches the consumer, the price gap could result in social and economic inequality.

Is it good to combine artificial intelligence with the brain? How safe it would be? Would Musk’s grandiose be a boon or bane for the world? It’s really like a sort of science fiction that makes people excited but how it is going to impact human evolution, and in what ways, remains the big question.