Elon Musk announced his Neuralink is hosting a ‘show and tell’ progress event on October 31, which will be the first progress update since the world watched a brain-chipped monkey play a video game with its mind in April 2021 – this animal later died during testing.
The biotech firm is developing a brain-computer interface that it claims could one day make humans hyper-intelligent, and allow paralyzed people to walk again.
Musk shared news of the Halloween event on Twitter, no other details were included, but it follows rumors that Neuralink has offered to buy its rival Synchron, which recently completed the first brain-chip in a human.
In April Musk shared that Neuralink was moving along to start human trials at the end of 2022, which could very well be what the billionaire has in store at the October presentation.
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The last Neuralink demonstration was in April 2021, which showcased a brain-chipped monkey using its mind to play a videogame
Neuralink showed its first progress update in August 2020 during a demonstration that showcased a pig with an early version of the brain chip.
The three little pig’s demo, as he called it, showed an animal named Gertrude with the brain implant. While she snuffed around in a pen, viewers saw her brain activity on a large screen.
‘It’s like a Fitbit in your skull, Musk said during the 2020 event.
‘It goes flush on your skull. I could have a Link right now and you wouldn’t know. Maybe I do.’
Musk announced the event but did not provide any details on what the public will see
The first event, held August 2020, included a pig with the chip. It showed the pig’s neurons firing off on a screen
Neuralink’s system consists of a computer chip attached to tiny flexible threads that are stitched into the brain by a ‘sewing-machine-like’ robot.
The device picks up signals in the brain, which are then translated into motor controls.
After the first glimpse of the chip, Musk presented a monkey playing Pong with its mind in April 2021.
The brain computer interface was implanted in a nine-year-old macaque monkey called Pager, who was first taught to play video games with a joystick.
The device in his brain recorded information about the neurons firing while he played the game, learning to predict the movements he would make.
Once the Neuralink device was ready the joystick was removed and the monkey was able to go on to play the game Pong purely with his brain computer interface.
Musk said on Twitter: ‘Soon our monkey will be on twitch & discord,’ referring to the popular services where gamers stream their play for people watching at home.
Sadly in February it was revealed Pager had died and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) lodged a complaint with the US Department of Agriculture, alleging several counts of animal abuse between 2017 and 2020, involving test monkeys owned by Neuralink.
Neuralink’s system consists of a computer chip attached to tiny flexible threads that are stitched into the brain by a ‘sewing-machine-like’ robot. The device picks up signals in the brain, which are then translated into motor controls
Pictured is the first prototype Musk has shared with the public. He showed this chip in August 2020
They claimed the macaque monkeys, housed at a University of California Davis research facility, were subject to experiments that amounted to torture, with evidence of rashes, self-mutilation and brain hemorrhages seen in documentation.
Concerns raised by PCRM in the complaint included an example of a monkey missing fingers and toes that may have been lost to ‘self mutilation’.
Another is of a monkey with holes drilled in its skull to have electrodes implanted into the brain, and a third of one suffering from a brain hemorrhage.
The majority of the monkeys had to be euthanized, or died as a result of procedures, according to the complaint.
It is not clear if the public will see the chip in another animal or it could be the event everyone has been waiting for – the announcement of human trials.
Neuralink is reportedly looking to explore a deal with Synchron that successfully implanted a chip into a severely paralyzed ALS patient in July, four people who work or have worked at Neuralink told Reuters Monday.
Reuters said it was not clear what a deal might look like or whether it would simply involve collaboration between the two companies.
