The Future Is In Our Minds: Elon Musk and The Neuralink Brain Chip

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Elon Musk announced this week that his startup Neuralink has implanted a chip in a human brain for the first time.

According to Elon’s social media posts, the patient is recovering well and initial results show promising neuron spike detection.

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So what is Neuralink?

Neuralink is a company focussed on surgically implanting a small electronic device into the skull that connects to the brain using ultra-thin wires.? This device would then connect to an external digital device using Bluetooth or another wireless connecting technology.

Neuralink is just one of several companies that are at the forefront of pioneering but controversial brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) technologies. These technologies have the potential to revolutionise the way our brains interact with our surroundings and our devices. So far all of the interfaces built require a physical chip to be permanently implanted into the brain.

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Why would you want a chip on your brain?

Medical Advancements: ?While many of us are lucky enough to have brains and bodies that function well, some of us suffer from cognitive or physical impairments that can affect our quality of life. One of the most significant benefits of BCI’s are the potential for medical advancements in helping to treat neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, and even paralysis. By directly interacting with the nervous system, the implanted chip could potentially restore motor function, help manage symptoms of these debilitating conditions and help to connect to artificial limbs for better motor control.

Improved Human-Computer Interaction: Right now you connect to your digital device the slow way – using your brain to control your fingers to type on a computer or touchscreen.? What if you took away the finger movement part of this process and just used your brain to connect directly to your device rather than through your hands?? Experiments have been done using BCI’s where a human was able to write text on a computer by just thinking about the words. While this technology has been developed for patients who are unable to speak, it could one day lead to seamless integration between humans and computers, enhancing our ability to communicate, control devices, and access information directly through thought.

Enhanced Brain Functionality: Ever wish that your brain could remember more, or work faster?? Well as futuristic as it might sound, one potential application for BCI’s in the long run is to help to augment brain improving your memory and brain learning speed. There could be a future where you could download skills and information directly into your brain pushing the boundaries of human cognitive abilities.? This is a long way off yet and while are can detect brain signal production and output the brain signal processing part still has a long way to go.

Should we be excited or worried?

With every new technology there are always risks and ethical concerns to go with the advantages.

Implant Risk: The most obvious risk comes from implanting a foreign object into the human brain. Everything from implant site infection, brain or skull damage during surgery and from the implant, and the body's rejection of the implant could cause long-term negative side effects.

Privacy Concerns: most BCI’s connect using a Bluetooth connection which is actually?less secure than a private Wi-Fi connection.? This creates a significant risk to individual privacy and could be a vulnerable point of access for data or identity theft of things we might not have even considered such as thoughts or neural patterns.

Ethical and Societal Implications: The possibility of enhancing or altering brain functions raises ethical questions and could potentially lead to a widening of the digital divide.? There is also the risk that malware could result in the manipulation of brain input?or output - having your computer hacked is one thing, but having your brain hacked?.

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While there is very little published data from Neuralink and to date most of the information has been anecdotal, we do know that the FDA have been involved in making sure that the proper regulatory hurdles are being met.? As we follow the journey of Neuralink and other BCI researchers, let’s keep up our optimism that it might be lifechanging those who medically need it while also showing a responsibility through public pressure for the technology to be used ethically.

Dr Michelle Dickinson is the co-founder of Nanogirl Labs Ltd, an education company dedicated to helping to empower everyone, everywhere to have a meaningful relationship with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).