Elon Musk remains in the news mainly for his exploits at X, Tesla, SpaceX and increasingly xAI, but one of his other companies is quietly making some incredible progress of its own.
Neuralink, which makes brain-computer interfaces which are implanted into people’s brains, has now successfully operated on nine patients. The last two surgeries were done on the same day, marking a first for the company when it managed to operate on two people together.
Audrey Crews was the ninth patient to receive a Neuralink transplant. She’s been a quadriplegic since the age of 16 and hadn’t been able to use her limbs, but with the Neuralink implant, can now operate a computer with her mind. Crews has been showing off her new transplant by sharing drawings she makes on her computer just by thinking of what she wants to draw.
“Here are some more of my doodles! Im taking requests. Lol Imagine your pointer finger is left click and the cursor moment is with your wrist. With out physically doing it. Just a normal day using telepathy,” she posted on X, while sharing pictures of an Apple, a heart symbol, and her name written in a computer with solely her mind.
Crews’ artworks are becoming more sophisticated as she gets used to the interface. She’s also shared a drawing of a cat and a tree, and also signed it off with her name.
Most recently, she’s shared her take on the viral art piece which was just a banana plastered on a wall.
Neuralink’s brain-computer interface is inserted into the patient’s head through a complex surgical process — a coin-sized chip with ultra-thin, flexible electrode threads is robotically implanted into regions of the brain responsible for movement and intent. These threads contain hundreds to over a thousand electrodes, which detect the activity of individual neurons as the patient thinks about a movement or task. The neural signals are collected and processed by custom electronics in the implant, which uses machine learning algorithms to decode patterns associated with movement intent or communication. The decoded instructions are sent wirelessly (typically via Bluetooth) to a computer or smartphone application. The patient can then control a cursor, type, or interact with digital interfaces through their thoughts.
This is a game-changing technology for quadriplegic patients, who are able to regain critical abilities with the implant, but Neuralink’s ultimate objective is to insert the implant into healthy patients as well. Elon Musk has said that one of the biggest roadblocks in humans competing with AI is that while we can absorb information quickly, putting it out, either through typing or speaking, is painfully slow compared to what computers can do. Neuralink could enable humans to simply output information with their thoughts, and compete with more sophisticated digital technology. It’s not inconceivable that the Neuralink implant could one day have an AI model on top of it, which could enable humans to give out answers that rival those of top AI models. These are still early days, but with Neuralink now able to operate on patients in quick succession, it does appear that Elon Musk is making quick progress towards making this a reality.