Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-computer biz, unveils pig with chip in brain
"This is increasingly sounding like a Black Mirror episode"-Elon Musk, introducing Neuralink.
Elon Musk's brain-computer-interface venture today unveiled a prototype that involves a pig with a computer chip implanted inside their brain.
The coin-sized device is implanted beneath the creature's skull.
"It's like a Fitbit, but in your skull," says Musk, and it's implanted by a robot.
"Non-consenual, conceptual telepathy" is another phrase Musk mentions, along with the ability to see bloodstains. Great.
The goal is to "cure neurological conditions like Alzheimer's, dementia and spinal cord injuries and ultimately fuse humankind with artificial intelligence," reports Reuters:
"An implantable device can actually solve these problems," Musk said on a webcast Friday, mentioning ailments such as memory loss, hearing loss, depression and insomnia.
But Musk said the focus of Friday's event was recruiting. "We're not trying to raise money," Musk said. "We're trying to convince great people to come work at Neuralink."
Neuralink has received $158 million in funding, $100 million of which came from Musk, and employs roughly 100 staff members, according to LinkedIn data.
And VentureBeat has a good breakdown of the technology behind the project.
This is Gertrude the pig. She has Elon Musk's neuralink in her brain. It can track when her snout touches something. That's about it. Hopes for the future: everything from getting the paralyzed to walk again to... heads up displays and telepathy pic.twitter.com/19il5YmbGh
- Brittany Levine Beckman (@brittanylevine) August 29, 2020
Introducing Neuralink https://t.co/7EF34GGwN4
- Neuralink (@neuralink) July 26, 2019
A big part of Neuralink's potential is giving people the ability supress things like fear and pain. #Neuralink pic.twitter.com/N5lAqLbsCX
- Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) August 28, 2020
"The future is going to be weird. In the future you will be able to save and reply memories. You could basically store your memories as a backup and restore the memories. You could potentially download them into a new body or into a robot body." https://t.co/yBbwmjOINW
- CNET (@CNET) August 28, 2020
Neuralink, Musk's brain-computer interface company, revealed a prototype showing readings from a pig's brain using a coin-shaped device implanted under skull (@kyle_l_wiggers / VentureBeat)https://t.co/0x83ucK13whttps://t.co/QPNlfpnsPw
- Techmeme (@Techmeme) August 29, 2020