How successful is the experiment to introduce a Neuralink chip into a patient’s brain?
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Neurochipping is producing first results. Elon Musk said that a man who received a Neuralink implant at the end of January learned to move a cursor with the power of thought. The company has not yet disclosed the details of the experiment, but, judging by the billionaire’s statements, the operation was successful – the patient recovers and learns to perform simple actions on a computer using the power of thought. Can these results be considered a scientific breakthrough? And what does the future hold for the technology? Grigory Kolganov will tell you.
Technologies for adaptation of paralyzed people have been actively developing for almost 40 years. Back in the 80s, Stephen Hawking, who lost the ability to speak, used a speech synthesizer to communicate. First, he selected words on the computer using finger movements using a clicker, then the sensor had to be attached to a nerve in his cheek. Modern equipment allows you to perform actions without any movements.
Neuralink connects a person to a computer using a chip implanted in the brain. The first results of this experiment are already a huge step for medicine, notes Marco Baptista, chief scientist at the Christopher and Dana Reeve Medical Foundation:
“We know that this technology can be very useful for people with spinal cord injuries, so the significance of the experiment is huge. Medical device development usually takes a long time, so we try to speed up the process. If companies work together, everything will go much faster. Neuralink is now at the stage where it needs to prove the effectiveness of the chips.
The result is not yet close, but people will definitely want to buy this technology. We are already on the verge of reality when such equipment will be used to treat patients.”
However, Musk’s goals are not limited solely to the medical field. In the future, neuroimplants will make it possible to download knowledge from the brain into a computer and exchange information without words or actions. Neuralink is quite serious: in 2024 the company plans to carry out 11 more operations, and by 2030 – more than 22 thousand. And the prospects for the technology are enormous, says Kirill Kayem, senior vice president for innovation at Skolkovo:
“If the subject learned to imagine movement, and the brain recoded the signal accordingly, and the cursor moved on the screen, then this is a gigantic result.
Then the question of accuracy of movement and resolution arises, but, in my opinion, this is already a matter of training. Controlling devices, for example, a speech synthesizer, is already a matter of converters, and not of interaction with Neuralink with the brain. And these converters can be quite complex.”
Four hundred companies are currently implanting chips in the brain, according to an international research database. In Russia, for example, neuroimplants are being created to restore vision, hearing and treat neurological diseases. However, such chipping will become truly widespread and universal only in decades, says Denis Kuleshov, director of the Sensor-Tech laboratory:
“The effectiveness of their implant can be judged after at least a year of clinical trials. The more patients work with this system, the better the computer understands what it is thinking about.
Therefore, of course, it is possible to communicate using the power of thought, but for now at a primitive level, because you will simply move the mouse across the screen and press the keys. And on the horizon there are 15-20 years of improvement of this technology.
People will even be able to send words. But from the database there are hundreds or two of the most common ones.”
Many works of fiction have been written and filmed about the consequences of brain chipping. The legendary “Matrix” seems to have outlined the prospects for humanity very clearly, but Elon Musk is not afraid of such forecasts. As well as its investors – according to Reuters calculations, the capitalization of the non-public company Neuralink has already reached $5 billion.
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