Billionaire technologist Elon Musk announced this week that his company Neuralink has successfully implanted its brain-computer interface into a human for the first time. The recipient is “recovering well,” Musk shared on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Monday evening, noting that initial results showed “promising neuron spike detection”—referring to the electrical activity of brain cells.
Each wireless Neuralink device comprises a chip and over 1,000 superthin, flexible conductors, which a surgical robot threads into the cerebral cortex. These electrodes are designed to detect thoughts related to motion. Musk envisions an app that will eventually translate these signals to move a cursor or produce text, enabling computer control by thought. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Musk wrote, describing the first Neuralink product, which he said is named Telepathy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved human clinical trials for Neuralink in May 2023. Last September, the company announced it was opening enrollment in its first study for people with quadriplegia.
Monday’s announcement did not surprise neuroscientists. Musk, the world’s richest man, “said he was going to do it,” remarked John Donoghue, a brain-computer interface expert at Brown University. “He had done the preliminary work, built on the shoulders of others, including what we did starting in the early 2000s.”
Neuralink’s initial ambitions, which Musk outlined when he founded the company in 2016, included integrating human brains with artificial intelligence. Its more immediate goals appear to align with the neural keyboards and other devices that people with paralysis already use to operate computers. However, the methods and speed with which Neuralink pursued these goals have led to federal investigations into dead study animals and the handling of hazardous materials.
Musk is known for making grand promises with scant detail, notes Ryan Merkley, director of research advocacy at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “This is perhaps the biggest example of that,” Merkley points out, citing the lack of information about the person who received the implant or their medical condition. “Depending on the patient’s disease or disorder, success can look very different.”
Scientific American spoke with Donoghue to understand what this latest step signifies for Neuralink—and whether the company might ever achieve Musk’s more extreme goal.
In describing the first results, Musk used the phrase “promising neuron spike detection.” What might that mean?
As a scientist, you can’t comment on anything until you have a paper in hand. But generally, that means there are action potentials [the electrical impulses that nerve cells create], and there’s a probe in the brain picking up those signals.
