Elon Musk Start-Up Neuralink Gets US Govt Nod for Human Test of Brain Implants

Elon Musk’s start-up Neuralink on Thursday mentioned it has gotten approval from US regulators to check its mind implants in individuals.

Neuralink mentioned clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its first in-human medical research is “an vital first step” for its technology, which is intended to let brains interface directly with computers.

“We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study,” Neuralink mentioned in a submit on Musk-run Twitter.

“This is the results of unimaginable work by the Neuralink workforce in shut collaboration with the FDA.”

Recruitment for a clinical trial is not yet open, according to Neuralink.

The aim of Neuralink implants is to enable human brains to communicate directly with computers, Musk said during a presentation by the start-up in December.

“We’ve been working hard to be ready for our first human (implant), and obviously we want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device in a human,” he mentioned on the time.

Musk — who purchased Twitter late final 12 months and in addition owns SpaceX, Tesla and several other different firms — has been recognized to make bold predictions about his firms, with a number of such forecasts finally failing to pan out.

In July 2019, he vowed that Neuralink would be capable to carry out its first checks on people in 2020.

Product prototypes, that are the dimensions of a coin, have been implanted within the skulls of monkeys, demonstrations by the startup confirmed.

At the Neuralink presentation, the corporate confirmed a number of monkeys “taking part in” basic video games or moving a cursor on a screen through their Neuralink implant.

Musk said the company would try to use the implants to restore vision and mobility in humans who had lost such abilities.

“We would initially enable someone who has almost no ability to operate their muscles… and enable them to operate their phone faster than someone who has working hands,” he mentioned.

“As miraculous as it could sound, we’re assured that it’s attainable to revive full physique performance to somebody who has a severed spinal wire,” he said.

Beyond the potential to treat neurological diseases, Musk’s ultimate goal is to ensure that humans are not intellectually overwhelmed by artificial intelligence, he said.

Other companies working on similar systems include Synchron, which announced in July that it had implanted the first brain-machine interface in the United States.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)