Elon Musk’s neurotech startup Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on Sunday, and the patient is “recovering well,” the billionaire said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday, CNBC reported.
The company is developing a brain implant that aims to help patients with severe paralysis control external technologies using only unreal signals. Neuralink began recruiting patients for its first in-human clinical trial in the fall after it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct the study back in May, according to a blog post.
Musk said Monday that Neuralink’s first product is called Telepathy, according to an X post.
If the technology functions properly, patients with severe degenerative diseases like ALS could someday use the implant to communicate or access social media by moving cursors and typing with their minds.
“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer,” Musk wrote. “That is the goal.”
The in-human clinical trial marks just one step on Neuralink’s path toward commercialization. Medical device companies must go through several rounds of intense data safety collection and testing before securing final approval from the FDA.
Reuters reported that the first human patient has received an implant from brain-chip startup Neuralink on Sunday and is recovering well, the company’s billionaire founder Elon Musk said.
“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk said in a post on the social media platform X on Monday.
Spikes are activity by neurons, which the National Institute of Health describes as cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and to the body.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had given the company clearance last year to conduct its first trial to test it’s implant on humans, a critical milestone in the startup’s ambitions to help patients overcome paralysis and a host of other neurological conditions.
The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink said previously, adding that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.
Engadget reported the identity of Neuralink’s first human trial subject hasn’t been made public. However, the company’s call for volunteers stipulates that trial participants must be within the U.S., over 18, and have a disability. Specifically, Neuralink is interested in implanting brain chips in people with “quadriplegia, paraplegia, vision loss, hearing loss, the inability to speak, and/or major limb amputation (affecting above or below the elbow and/or above or below the knee).”
Personally, I hope that the humans who have access to the Neuralink receive the best possible outcome. Previously to putting the chip into humans, the company implanted chips in monkeys – and that didn’t go well.