Tech billionaire Elon Musk announced yesterday that his creepy company Neuralink has successfully implanted the first brain chip into a human patient.
bbc news report Neuralink, a neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk in 2016, says it has developed a brain-machine interface consisting of thousands of electrodes attached to flexible threads that can be implanted in the brain. The goal is to create a wireless device that can record and stimulate brain activity as a potential way to treat neurological conditions.
Musk said the first human implant of Neuralink’s brain chip has been completed, with positive results so far.
The first humans received implants @Neuralink As of yesterday, he was recovering well.
Initial results show promising neuronal spike detection.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2024
Musk said on X (formerly Twitter) that the first Neuralink product was called “telepathy,” allowing users to control devices like phones and computers just by thinking. Although the technology is still in its early stages of research, Musk envisions it eventually allowing paralyzed patients to communicate faster than typing, and even text input. “Symbiosis with artificial intelligence”.
first @Neuralink The product is called telepathy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2024
With just a thought, you can control your phone, computer, and almost any device through them.
Early users will be people who have lost the use of their limbs.
Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than speed typists and auctioneers. That’s the goal.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2024
Neuralink faces competition from other brain-machine interface companies, including Blackrock Neurotech and Precision Neuroscience. But the high profile of Musk and Neuralink has brought even more public attention to the concept of connecting the human brain to a computer.
Breitbart News previously reported on claims that Neuralink was facing serious problems with animal test subjects. Some groups even claimed that the experiment bordered on abuse.
A detailed investigation has revealed disturbing circumstances surrounding the death of a monkey used in Neuralink’s preliminary experiments. Elon Musk flatly denied that the deaths were a direct result of the implant, claiming that the subjects selected were “already close to death.” However, these claims are contradicted by accounts that reveal severe complications experienced by the subjects, including chronic infections, paralysis, and swelling of the brain, requiring euthanasia.
wired provided some details Regarding the conditions in which some of the experimental animals were placed, he wrote:
For example, in an experimental surgery performed in December 2019 to determine the “viability” of an implant, internal parts of the device “damaged” during implantation. Throughout the night, researchers watched as the monkey, identified only as “Animal 20” by the University of California, Davis, scratched at the surgical site, produced bloody secretions, pulled on the connector and eventually broke the device. I observed how the part came off. Surgery was performed the next day to repair the problem, but the fungal and bacterial infections persisted. Veterinarian records indicate that neither infection was likely to be removed because the implant covered the infected area. The monkey was euthanized on January 6, 2020.
Explaining the treatment of other animals: wired report:
Additional veterinary reports show the condition of the female monkey, known as “Animal 15,” in the months leading up to her death in March 2019. A few days after her implant surgery, she started pressing her head against her floor for no apparent reason. Records say she was in pain and suffering from an infection. Her staff was picking and pulling on her implant until it bled, even as she felt discomfort, and spent time lying at the foot of her cage and holding hands with her roommate. I observed that.
Animal 15 began to lose coordination and was observed by staff to tremble uncontrollably when looking at researchers. Her condition worsened for several months, and staff eventually euthanized her. Her autopsy report said there was hemorrhage in her brain and her Neuralink implant caused parts of her cerebral cortex to become “locally tattered.”
“Patients should have serious concerns about the safety of Neuralink’s device,” warned Ryan Merkley, head of research and advocacy at the Animal Welfare-focused Medical Ethics Committee. The committee, which has more than 17,000 physician members, is urging prospective Neuralink volunteers to seriously reconsider their applications.
read more Click here for BBC News.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship issues.
