The Neuralink technology anticipates starting
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla
and Twitter made a significant announcement regarding his business Neural Ink’s development of a brain chip on Wednesday.
The wireless device, which
would be implanted in the brains of crippled patients in an effort to enable them to move and communicate once again, and is anticipated to start human clinical trials
in six months, according to the business magnate.
Testing & Approval
Since a few years ago, Neural ink has been testing its products on animals while awaiting regulatory
approval from the US. Musk said Wednesday night in a public update on the
device, “We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work
well before putting a device into a human, but we’ve submitted I think most of
our paperwork to the FDA and probably in about six months we should be able to
upload Neural ink in a human.
Device Ready for human use
A show-and-tell session for
Neuralink that Musk was supposed to host was moved from October 31 to October
24 without a justification. After the update on Wednesday evening, Musk
responded to a Bloomberg piece about the revelation on Twitter by saying the
business is “now convinced” the device is prepared for use by people.
Timing, he continued, “is dependent on moving through the FDA clearance
process.”
In April 2021, Neuralink gave
its final public demonstration, which featured a monkey with an implanted chip
using solely its brain to play a computer game.
Musk founded Neuralink in 2016
with the intention of creating a chip that would enable the brain to operate
sophisticated technological equipment and, in the long run, allow paralyzed
individuals to regain motor function.
Usages of Neuralink
If the technology is
successful, it will use a brain chip to merge brain functions with artificial
intelligence. According to Musk, it could aid in the treatment of conditions
including Parkinson’s, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
A bit late in the approval
Although Musk had hoped to
have regulatory approval by the end of 2020, which was a goal of his in 2019,
the firm is currently running a little behind schedule. Musk stated his
intention to start human trials in 2022 during a meeting in late 2021.
According to Reuters, current
and former Neuralink employees have also claimed that the business violated
internal deadlines to obtain FDA approval to begin human trials.
Competitor company Synchron is
also working on a microchip that would help patients with paralysis communicate
through a brain-computer interface device.
The business implanted its
device in a patient in the United States for the first time in July 2021 after
receiving FDA approval in the summer of 2021. According to Reuters, Synchron
has also finished its studies on four Australian subjects.
According to prior Fox
Business reports, Musk approached his rival earlier this year about investment
opportunities after the latter expressed frustration over Neuralink’s sluggish
development.
Courtesy Fox Business