US billionaire Elon Musk is best known for his many different ventures. He conquered the streets with Tesla and the Cybertruck and reached for the stars with the rocket company SpaceX.
Furthermore, many people may know Musk for purchasing the social media platform Twitter and then renaming it X. Since then, the super-rich man has made several extremely questionable decisions for the platform.
One of his latest projects is called Neuralink. It is a type of brain chip that is currently in the clinical testing phase. According to Musk, this will enable gamers to gain supernatural abilities in the future.
What is Neuralink?
The company was founded by Elon Musk and other investors in 2016. The brain implant has 1024 electrodes that a robot connects to the brain using an extremely fine needle. This allows neural activity to be recorded and even played back. After initial tests on monkeys, the first human had the device implanted in early 2024.
His name is Noland Arbaugh and since a swimming accident he has suffered from quadriplegia – a paraplegia in which sufferers cannot use their arms or legs.
The aim of the operation was not only to successfully implant the device, but also to give the patient the opportunity to communicate with computers or smartphones.
Initial tests show Arbaugh using the device to play chess and Civilization 6 using only the “power” of his mind. In a new interview, Musk promises that this is just the beginning and is aimed directly at gamers.
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Better than any pro gamer?
In a new episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, Musk talks about the future of Neuralink. In the next few years, the device will enable people to be better than any professional gamer:
“We’re pretty confident that in the next year or two, someone with a Neuralink implant will be able to outperform a professional gamer because the reaction time will be faster,” he explains.
For the even more distant future, Musk even speaks of a symbiosis between humans and artificial intelligence. Elon Musk even claims that the device could one day restore the sight of blind people and expand it to include ultraviolet and infrared frequencies outside the visible spectrum.
But that is still a long way off at the moment. The current focus is still on addressing damaged neurons and improving the quality of life of physically disabled people.
But once the risks of Neuralink brain implants are proven to be low after thousands of people have used them for years, the company may be able to pursue “augmentation” for people without neurological problems, he adds. The second patient has now had a Neuralink implanted.
Source: Daily News, Yahoo
