Telepathy, a wireless brain chip, was successfully implanted into a human for the first time, according to news from Elon Musk’s Neuralink firm.
The patient showed “promising neuron spikes or nerve impulses,” and the billionaire claims that the patient is making a full recovery.
The news follows last May’s approval of Neuralink’s human clinical studies by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Musk hopes his company will be able to connect human brains to computers, and cure a range of conditions, including obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia, as well as enabling web browsing and telepathy.
The Neuralink device will first target restoring vision and enabling movement of muscles in people who cannot do so, Musk had previously said.
He made headlines in 2022 when he said that he was so confident in the devices’ safety that he would be willing to implant them in his children.
A competitor for Neuralink, company Synchron, has already implanted a brain chip in a patient for the first time after getting clearance for human trials in 2021.
In 2022, Neuralink came under fire by animal rights groups for allegedly ‘mutilating monkey brains’.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine alleged the company carried out ‘invasive and deadly’ brain experiments on test monkeys.
Last year, it revealed footage of a monkey playing video games with its mind.
Their website says its mission is to: ‘Create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow.’
They also said they are currently focused on giving people with quadriplegia the ability to control their computers and mobiles with ‘their thoughts’.
