Elon Musk said on Monday that the first human patient to receive a Neuralink brain chip is now in recovery after a successful procedure.
“The first human received an implant from [Neuralink] yesterday and is recovering well,” wrote Musk in a post on X. “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” he added.
Neuralink’s first product, Telepathy, is specifically engineered for people who have lost the use of their limbs. According to Musk, Telepathy “[e]nables control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking.”
“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Musk explained.
As stated on its website, Neuralink’s mission is to “create a generalized brain interface” with fully implantable, cosmetically invisible chips that “restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs.”
The procedure is done by a surgical robot that implants the chip in the region of the patient’s brain that controls motor function. The computer chip is connected via ultra-thin wires to electrodes that wirelessly link to a receiver behind the patient’s ear. This is what allows the user to connect to its devices.
Despite the technology’s infancy, Neuralink’s brain chip offers a promising future for the field of medical care, according to Tara Spires-Jones, president of the British Neuroscience Association.
“The idea of brain-nervous system interfaces has great potential to help people with neurological disorders in the future,” she told the UK-based Science Media Center on Tuesday, per CNN.
While Neuralink completed its first human implant on January 28, Spires-Jones says the brain-chip interfaces are still in the experimental stage, require invasive neurosurgery, and are still years away from being “commonly available.”
In 2021, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration provided guidelines and recommendations to Neuralink regarding brain-chip interphases for patients with paralysis or amputation.
The document notes that the field is “progressing rapidly from fundamental neuroscience discoveries to translational applications and market access.”
