Elon
Musk will be demonstrating a working device produced by his neurotech firm
Neuralink on Friday. He’s been working on this secretive project and it’s
assumed that the device is a brain-machine interface. In the past, he has
spoken quite candidly about how important it is that humans seek help from BMI
devices to keep up with AI which is supposed to supplement our brainpower.
However, he’s taking baby steps so, for now, has kept it simple. His device will
allow people to control phones or computers through their minds.
In
July he said that he will give an update on 28th August. Now he’s saying
that the update will actually unveil the second generation robot design which
will attach itself to the brain and along with that will be a demo of neurons
apparently “firing in real-time” –
of course, we don’t know what exactly he meant by that.
We
know that Musk likes to think out of the box, He’s done a fabulous job with Tesla
and SpaceX. But let’s face it; Neuralink is his most ambitious venture till
date. What could be cooler than the usage of electrodes to connect with the
brain, the most fascinating machine of them all? It’s quite a delicate task and
so the company has come up with a robot-like sewing machine to get
the job done.
Musk
has been open about the installation for BMIs to perform highly trained neural surgeons
tasks like the Lasik eye surgery. However, he may need a few years to get to that.
Musk
tweeted: “Still far from LASIK, but
could get pretty close in a few years.”
Scientists
have welcomed Musk with an open arm and applaud his involvement in the medical
field. They feel that BMI could potentially be useful in helping patients with
neurological disorders. Some feel that we shouldn’t be too optimistic as the
utility of these ventures is far from proven.
Neuralink
will begin clinical trials by the end of the year and as far as this update is
concerned viewers can catch the details on the company’s YouTube Channel.