Elon Musk’s Neuralink Wants to Implant Chip in Second Human Patient’s Brain

Elon Muskco-founder of Neuralinkannounced that the company is ready to to soon implant his brain chip into a second patientafter the experimentation with the first patient Noland Arbaugh. Neuralink’s goal is to develop neural interfaces or BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) that allow people with neurological conditions to control external devices with their thoughts. The chip Telepathy allowed Arbaugh to use the computer with the power of his mind. However, the company also encountered problems due to the partial detachment of the device. Having managed to resolve these issues, Neuralink decided to continue the trial by implementing the necessary improvements to its chips: according to Musk, up to a dozen patients should receive the implant by the end of this year. The green light from the Food and Drug Administration for the trial to continue came in May.

To avoid the problems encountered so far, Neuralink will adopt new measures to prevent the formation of air pockets and will optimize the positioning of the wires in the brain. In the video released on X, in fact, the Neuralink executives who took part in the live broadcast confirmed the fact that after the surgery, air was trapped in Arbaugh’s skull, and this would have contributed significantly to the detachment of the wires.

To avoid this problem, Neuralink involves inserting wires deeper into brain tissue and it is even planned to perform the modeling of the patient’s skullso that the chip fits better inside it. When will the Neuralink chip be implanted in a second human patient? According to Musk and company’s timetable, it should all happen within this week or so.

For the future, Neuralink is developing a new version of the chipwhich is expected to “double the bandwidth” of the current version. According to Musk, Neuralink will double the number of wires inserted into the brain — from the current 64 to a total of 128 — each with eight electrodes (instead of 16). These changes to the chip are expected to improve its efficiency. It has not been made clear, however, when this “revised” version of the device will be available, nor what Neuralink intends to use it for.

In the meantime, Neuralink is also working on Blindsighta device designed to enable blind people to see, which is currently being tested on primates.

If you are interested in seeing the entire speech made by Musk and “singing company” on the subject, we leave you at video which we used as the main source for writing the news.