Elon Musk said the first human patient has received a computer chip in the brain from his startup Neuralink Corp.In a post to Twitter ("X"), Musk said the patient is recovering well and that initial results of the procedure were promising.Neuralink’s brain implant aims to help people with traumatic injuries operate computers using only their thoughts. In May last year, the company said it had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct human trials. Late last year Neuralink announced it was recruiting patients with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for the trial.Musk tweeted on Monday that Neuralink’s first product would be called Telepathy, as it would grant the recipient “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,” he wrote. “That is the goal.” In July 2019, Musk predicted surgery in a human head by year’s end. Meanwhile, other companies such as Synchron moved ahead implanting their own devices into human brains, opening Neuralink to the suggestion it was falling behind.Kip Ludwig, co-director of the Wisconsin Institute for Translational Neuroengineering at the University of Wisconsin, said Neuralink had achieved neuron spike detection, which means the company could get recordings from the patient’s brain. Ludwig said Neurolink had to stay ahead of Blackrock Neurotech and Synchron.The startup’s chips go less than two millimetres into the brain, whereas the one in development from Precision Neuroscience sits on top of the brain tissue.In animal testing, Neuralink allowed monkeys to play computer games using their brains alone. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine expressed its opposition in February of 2022, alleging that Neuralink did "invasive and deadly brain experiments."Typical first-in-human trials, such as Neuralink just launched, enroll five to 10 people and take around six months. The next steps would likely be a feasibility study, followed by a pivotal study.Neuralink adviser Jaimie Henderson, a neurosurgery professor at Stanford University, expressed reserve in an interview last week, saying commercial availability was still years off.“I do think there’s a danger in overhyping it,” Henderson said.The Neuralink website says its goal is to "create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow.""Brain-computer interfaces have the potential to change lives for the better. We want to bring this technology from the lab into peoples' homes."The site's 'implant' section says, "Our brain-computer interface is fully implantable, cosmetically invisible and designed to let you control a computer or mobile device anywhere you go."It also explains the N1 implant is "hermetically sealed in a biocompatible enclosure that withstands physiological conditions several times harsher than those in the human body." Its battery is powered wirelessly from outside the brain with an inductive charger. Neural signals are transmitted wirelelessly to the Neuralink Application which decides the data stream into actions and intents."The threads of our implant are so fine they can't be inserted by the human hand. Our surgical robot has been designed to reliably and efficiently insert these threads exactly where they need to be," the site explains."The N1 implant records neural activity through 1,024 electrodes distributed across 64 threads. These highly-flexible, ultra-thin threads are key to minimize damage during implantation and beyond."A training exercise online shows recipients will begin by moving a mouse pointer through their mind.Below, Neuralink's prime study, a one-minute announcement of the successful implantation and a 20-minute press conference from December to announce the progress to date.
