Elon Musk earlier demonstrated a pig named Gertrude.Neuralink, a new startup under its umbrellaHow to connect the brain to computer devices through chips.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration officially approved Neuralink's brain chip testing application in July this year. The second-generation chip demonstrated this time can be placed in the head through craniotomy in a smaller size, and "communicate" with brain cells through electrodes, and connect to external devices through low-power Bluetooth, thereby converting brain waves into digital signals.
According to Elon Musk, this brain chip is like a Fitbit that is directly installed in the head. It can connect to brain cell signals through 1024 electrodes and convert brain waves into digital signals, which can be analyzed through an external computer.
Neuralink's main purpose in creating brain chips is to gain a deeper understanding of the brain, and thus to know how to solve problems caused by brain damage due to congenital defects or acquired injuries, such as helping patients with conditions that affect limb movement ability or even language expression or memory due to brain damage.
In addition, Elon Musk also emphasized that this chip can also be used in spinal nerve repair, thereby helping patients with damaged spinal neurons to restore their ability to move. In the future, it may even be possible for people to "communicate" directly through brain chips rather than through communication modes such as speaking and writing. Neuralink's development vision is to combine the human brain with artificial intelligence, so that the brain can be "upgraded" through digitalization, and even back up memories, and transfer memories to other vehicles like a movie, such as a new body or a robot.
At the same time, Elon Musk also stated that Neuralink is currently developing equipment specifically for transplanting its brain chips, which will be able to handle processes including craniotomy, partial skull removal, and brain chip implantation and suturing. It can also avoid blood vessels during the operation, thereby reducing overall bleeding. It also emphasized that the entire operation can be completed within 1 hour, and the patient can recover within a day without having to be hospitalized to wait for the body to recover, and even without general anesthesia to complete the operation.
In addition to using pigs as a demonstration this time, Neuralink has previously conducted tests on large rodents such as rats, and Elon Musk has previously mentioned that this brain chip can be used on monkeys, but there is currently no official documentation to support this.
