The next objective will be to exploit the reverse mechanism, i.e transform computer signals into electrical brain impulses to treat neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s or dementia or enabling a paraplegic to walk again. After having worked with pigs, monkeys and other animals – even reporting some suspicious deaths, forcing Musk himself to deny any type of connection between those deaths and the Neuralink implant – being able to do the first tests on humans represents a big leap in forward for the company to understand if it will really succeed in its aim.
What is Neuralink used for?
A year ago, Neuralink said it had won approval from U.S. regulators to test its brain implants in people via Link, a device the size of five coins stacked on top of each other and inserted into the human brain through surgery. They are not the first to try, but the development of truly microscopic electrodes with an extremely flexible structure would have managed to overcome the obstacle of many other competing companies: being able to minimize brain micro-traumas in the areas where the system is placed.
At the moment the experimentation should be limited to the collection of data to be able to transform electrical nerve impulses into digestible commands for a computer, therefore, for example, trying to make a patient suffering from paralysis control the cursor of a PC. Only at a later stage will we try to do the opposite: that is, try to replicate a brain impulse through the computer to move a limb and so on. In short, the objective is science fiction but with the recent artificial intelligence boombeing able to create a concrete bridge with this reality and trying to create a symbiotic bond could be the final development step of Neuralink.