Neuralink approved the experiment – Kommersant FM
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Elon Musk will begin inserting chips into the brains of volunteers. Neuralink has received appropriate permission from an independent review commission, according to the organization’s website. The entrepreneur is now recruiting patients with paralysis for the first trial. The study will take six years. The number of participants has not yet been specified. How promising is such a scientific experiment? Daniil Babkin will tell you.
The announcement of Neuralink’s first clinical trial said the study was called PRIME, which translates to “Precision Robotic Brain-Computer Interface.”
The company plans to test its BCI implant; a special robot will install it in the brains of volunteers. If the tests are completed successfully, then people with paralysis will be able to control their bodies using the power of thought. However, Musk is exaggerating, calling his research innovative, says Alexey Kashcheev, head of the neurosurgical department of the University Clinic of Moscow State University:
“This is one of the most interesting and promising technologies in neuroscience. It’s not new. Elon Musk is, first of all, not a scientist, but an extremely successful entrepreneur, so he gives things absolutely known in science a new sound, including in the media. Spinal cord and brain stimulation have been used in practice since 1967. I myself perform about 20 such operations a year.
Their meaning is that an electrode is implanted on one or another part of the brain or spinal cord, which for some reason is now commonly called a chip. We read electrical impulses that are thoughts or urges to move. The device decrypts them and is capable of reproducing them in some real action.”
The novelty of such an experiment is that Musk wants to significantly reduce the chip – so much so that it is compatible with the human brain. For comparison, the first such devices in the 70s were the size of a suitcase that patients had to carry with them. But due to the micro-size of the implant, problems may arise, says Denis Kuleshov, director of the Sensor-Tech laboratory:
“There are many questions from the point of view of the compactness of the entire structure, because the electronics should be practically invisible both for the brain and cosmetically – people should not see that the patient has something large screwed to his head. We are talking about super-compact solutions. Also, many teams are trying to ensure that the survival rate of such technologies is at a very good level, because, as a rule, the human body repels everything foreign.”
Now such chips are being developed for so-called chronic implementation – this means that their service life reaches an average of 5-10 years. The patient is then reimplanted and new electronics are placed in place of the old chip. And it is unknown whether Musk will be able to develop a more durable and at the same time safe chip.
If Neuralink is still able to solve these problems, implantation will cause a number of everyday difficulties, believes Alexander Kaplan, head of the laboratory of neurophysiology and brain-computer interfaces at Moscow State University:
“There will be some kind of electronics in the brain, and it must be very strongly protected from external electromagnetic influences, in particular, security frameworks. It is unknown how the chip will react during lightning flashes when there is a powerful electromagnetic signal. This danger exists. All this must be overcome in order to actually use it safely.”
At the same time, the company plans to invent implants that will create a “tertiary level” of the brain – it will be responsible for inference and cognitive functions. It is this department that will contact artificial intelligence. But Neuralink will move on to such studies only after solving problems with serious diseases.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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