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Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink, is developing technology to connect human brains with AI. According to him, the move is necessary to make humans as smart as AI and also helpful in curing brain disorders.
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Brain-computer interface would work via implanted chip, a 'bunch of tiny wires'.
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In a tweet, the billionaire said the machine is going to be ready by the end of 2020.
Elon Musk believes humans must link up with machines in order to fight the inevitable onslaught of artificial intelligence. In a tweet in April 2019, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO said technology from his latest company, Neuralink, will be 'coming soon.' His plan to implant computer interfaces in brains using laser beams will become true soon.
ElonMusk says it will happen by the end of 2020 and he confirmed the news about Neuralink with a recent tweet on 2 February 2020, Sunday.He said the and could be tested on humans as soon as this summer.
During an impromptu Neuralink Q&A session, the news got confirmed.
“The profound impact of high bandwidth, high precision neural interfaces is underappreciated. Neuralink may have this in a human as soon as this year. Just needs to be unequivocally better than Utah Array, which is already in some humans & has severe drawbacks.”
-Elon Musk, CEO SpaceX, Tesla
What is Neuralink?
Elon Musk wants to . At the end of July 2019, Musk and his team revealed that they had developed ultrafine ‘threads’ that can be woven into your brain to listen in on your neurons. The company has also built a robot that can perform the delicate surgery, under the supervision of a neurosurgeon.
When the company was first launched in 2016, Musk said he wanted to – to give people more bandwidth. But with this new announcement, the researchers have turned their attention to .
Nuralink’s approach to implanting AI chips in the brain
The N1, a 4mm-square chip, is implanted into the skull. Attached to the chip are wires thinner than a human hair, which reaches out into the brain. These threads are placed close to important parts of the brain and are able to detect messages as they are relayed between neurons, recording each impulse and stimulating their own. Neuralink says the N1 is able to connect with 1,000 different brain cells, and that a patient might have as many as 10 N1 chips implanted.
The chips connect wirelessly to a wearable device that hooks over the user’s ear, much like a hearing aid, and contains a Bluetooth radio and a battery.
Neuralink says the first devices will be implanted via traditional neurosurgery but eventually, the chips will be inserted safely and virtually painlessly through a small incision by a robot surgeon. For more details here is a that you can read.
While , he said once the chip itself is good enough to be installed, the surgery part should be as simple as a Lasik procedure.
“If this is done by neurosurgeons, there’s no way it can scale to a large number of people. It needs to be scaled to a large number of people, because I think, ultimately, we want the future to be determined by a large number of humans.”
Elon Musk in a podcast.
What conditions can be treated using Neuralink technology?
Neuralink’s mission is mostly medical, with Musk saying the chips will ultimately be used to make up for entire lost sections of the brain due to stroke/accident/congenital. In response to this, he said,"Don’t want to get too excited, but the potential is truly transformational for restoring brain & motor functions,” Musk said. “There is no other way to do it imo."
Musk has also suggested Neuralink’s technology could be used to down the line. He believes linking our brains to computers directly would prevent A.I. from becoming irreversibly unstable. Rather, humans would be capable of digital "superintelligence."
What are the expected risks of Neuralink technology?
Neuralink will need to learn from the successes (and failures) of existing brain-computer interface technologies. The threads connecting electrodes to the chip need to be flexible, to minimize the damage to surrounding brain tissue. And if this technology is to be given to patients with pre-existing conditions, there are also risks associated with operating on those whose immune systems may be compromised.
While Elon Musk is reassured the audience that implanting the device would be as safe as having laser eye surgery, the company is yet to seek FDA approval, which it will need to market the device.
There are not just health risks to worry about. Society will need to consider what to do with the data recorded by N1. What are ethics behind monitoring someone’s every thought, deed, and emotion?
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At the launch, Neuralink CEO Max Hodak said that the first patients would be those people with quadriplegia due to spinal cord injuries. These patients will have 4 chips implanted that will be connected with up to 4000 neurons.
The benefits extend beyond the disabled. Musk hopes that the technology will become commonplace, turning the humans into cyborg beings that can achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence – something he believes will be essential to the survival of our species.