Using Pigs With Brain Implants, Elon Musk Demonstrates Neuralink His Ambitious Brain Machine Interface Tech

Elon Musk demonstrated his brain- to- machine interface, Neuralink with pigs that had brain implants. The implants have the ability to read brain activity in realtime.

Photo: AFP

New Delhi: Founder of SpaceEx and Tesla Motors, Elon Musk demonstrated his ambitious plans of brain- to- machine interface, Neuralink on Friday, after he unveiled pigs with brain implants that could read their brain activity in realtime. The start-up Neuralink has created brain implants which is a small, robotic device that inserts tiny electrode threads through the skull and into the brain. While this device is at its early stages, Musk believes that the device will be able to treat neural disorders one day. The earlier design was placed behind an ear like a hearing aid the current version is designed to be implanted in a person's skull. The pigs used for the demonstration which was live-streamed on YouTube had prototypes of the neural links implanted in their head, and the device was tracking those pigs’ brain activity in real-time. Musk has also claimed that one of the pigs had a device and had removed it later to show that the implant can be removed easily without causing any harm. He also said that the Food and Drug Administration had awarded the company a breakthrough device authorization which will expedite research on a medical device. Musk founded Neuralink in 2016, it is a neuroscience technology company that is focused on building systems with super-thin threads that carry electrodes. The idea is that when the device is implanted into a brain the device will be a channel for a computer to communicate with the brain. While the idea is not new, according to a Wall Street Journal article, Musk's Neuralink wants to one day work on surgeries that could improve cognitive functioning, “I am confident that long term it would be possible to restore someone's full-body motion,” said Musk in the report. But according to a Vox report, there are concerns that arise from the development of brain-machine interfaces, as there many ethical and legal issues. According to the report, an American government-funded think tank RAND issued a report on the need for policies around the use of brain-machine interfaces within the military context which stated that the technology could introduce new concerns like widespread hacking. In the report, a neuroscience-focused researcher Marcello Ienca said “If brain-reading devices have the ability to read the content of thoughts, in the years to come governments will be interested in using this tech for interrogations and investigations.”