Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink is apparently ready to put a chip into another person’s head. The multi-company CEO said the startup was now searching for a second person to get the Neuralink “Telepathy” implant device in their noggin after it was successfully implanted into another person’s head earlier this year.
As he so often does, Musk took to X to let people know about his latest plan. He posted that Neuralink is now “accepting applications for the second participant.,” explaining that the volunteer would get the “Telepathy cybernetic brain implant that allows you to control your phone and computer just by thinking.” He wrote this post in a quote above the company’s own video from the first Neuralink user: Noland Arbaugh.
Neuralink first received permission to begin human trials in 2023, and Arbaugh’s procedure was done back in March, according to Business Insider. The 30-year-old was paralyzed from the neck down after getting into a car accident, and he has described the neural interface as “life-changing,” because it allows him to use the internet, post on social media and play video games using his thoughts alone.
All that being said, Neuralink’s first human trial didn’t go perfectly. Here’s more on the issues, from Business Insider:
However, Neuralink’s first human trial didn’t go completely smoothly. The company said last week that some of the tiny threads the device uses to interface with the brain, each thinner than a human hair, moved out of position a few weeks after the surgery.
The malfunction rendered the implant less effective, and the company reportedly considered removing it completely.
Arbaugh told Bloomberg he “cried a little bit” when he began noticing a delay between his thoughts and the computer cursor.
Neuralink said in a blog post that it made tweaks to Arbaugh’s implant, enabling it to work effectively again.
Despite some, well, issues – Neuralink hasn’t exactly struggled to find interested parties who want Elon’s lil brain chip in their head. Thousands of folks have apparently expressed interest in having a piece of this skull removed and a chip stuffed in there when Neuralink began recruiting last summer.
Neuralink is apparently planning to operate on 11 people in 2024, and, according to Bloomberg, aims to have chips in the skills of 22,000 users by the end of the decade. These people are far braver than me, man.