Elon Musk Hopes to Test a Brain Implant in Humans Next Year

NYT HEALTH: Elon Musk Hopes to Test a Brain Implant in Humans Next Year
By Christina Jewett and Cade Metz
Section: Health
Source: New York Times
Published Date: November 30, 2022 at 02:00AM

The tech multibillionaire said his company, Neuralink, was seeking government approval to test his device in people, and predicted it could happen in six months. Others have been conducting similar tests for years, but no device has been marketed commercially.

Nov 30 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Wednesday he expects a wireless brain chip developed by his company Neuralink to begin human clinical trials in six months, after the company missed earlier timelines set by him.

The company is developing brain chip interfaces that it says could help disabled patients to move and communicate again, with Musk adding on Wednesday it will also target restoring vision.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas, Neuralink has in recent years been conducting tests on animals as it seeks approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin clinical trials in people.

"We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human," Musk said during a much-awaited public update on the device.

Speaking to a crowd of select invitees in a presentation at Neuralink headquarters that lasted nearly three hours, Musk emphasized the speed at which the company is developing its device.

"The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel," he added. "So, in theory, progress should be exponential."

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/30/health/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-device.html

Technolog News and Tweets