David Pierce To be clear: this is not the all-encompassing brain computer Musk has been talking about for years. Musk has spent years talking about the potential for telepathy and using Neuralink...
David Pierce
To be clear: this is not the all-encompassing brain computer Musk has been talking about for years. Musk has spent years talking about the potential for telepathy and using Neuralink to help humans keep up with AI, and the system Neuralink plans to test is nothing close to that ambition.
The study will take six years and is looking for people with quadriplegia to test the whole Neuralink system.
A few months after getting FDA approval for human trials, Neuralink is looking for its first test subjects. The six-year initial trial, which the Elon Musk-owned company is calling “the PRIME Study,” is intended to test Neuralink tech designed to help those with paralysis control devices. The company is looking for people with quadriplegia due to vertical spinal cord injury or ALS who are over the age of 22 and have a “consistent and reliable caregiver” to be part of the study.
The PRIME Study (which apparently stands for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface, even though that acronym makes no sense) is set to research three things at once. The first is the N1 implant, Neuralink’s brain-computer device. The second is the R1 robot, the surgical robot that actually implants the device. The third is the N1 User App, the software that connects to the N1 and translates brain signals into computer actions. Neuralink says it’s planning to test both the safety and efficacy of all three parts of the system.
Researchers have long been testing implants that let people with paralysis control computers and other devices, too. Two recently published studies, for instance, showed brain-to-computer interfaces could help patients with ALS communicate by typing on a computer.
Still, the study is a big step for Neuralink, which won FDA approval in May after being rejected by the agency in early 2022.
As with so many things about Neuralink, it can be hard to separate the company’s promises from its plans, and so it’s hard to know exactly what will come of the PRIME Study and when. But it appears we’re soon going to get our first look at what happens when you let Elon Musk all the way inside your head.
Considering their track record so far, I wouldn't want these people going anywhere near my brain.
David Pierce
To be clear: this is not the all-encompassing brain computer Musk has been talking about for years. Musk has spent years talking about the potential for telepathy and using Neuralink to help humans keep up with AI, and the system Neuralink plans to test is nothing close to that ambition.