Elon Musk's classified startup Neuralink presented the results of its developments to the public for the first time. At a press conference in San Francisco, the company's specialists told how work is progressing on a prototype of an ultralight neural interface that can unite the human brain and a computer.
Neuralink showed a device implanted in the brain of a laboratory rat and capable of reading information from multiple neurons at once. The novelty is that the implants are made of flexible, cellophane-like wires, which are implanted into the soft tissue of the brain by a so-called "sewing machine" created by scientists from California universities, VentureBeat reports. The signal from the device can be read wirelessly from outside.
An autonomous neurosurgeon robot, equipped with a machine vision system, guides a needle with a bundle of wires and insulation 5 microns thick into the brain past the capillaries. Electrodes are located in different sections of each individual strand with a diameter of four to six microns (a quarter of a human hair). At maximum productivity per minute, the robot "sews" six threads with 192 electrodes.
The documentation published by Neuralink states that up to 3072 electrodes can be distributed on just 96 strands. The authors also write that the company has already performed at least 19 operations on animals and successfully implanted wires in 87% of cases. During the presentation, Musk hinted that Neuralink worked with primates as well: "The monkey was able to control the computer with the power of thought."
Whether the same technology will work on humans is still unknown, as well as how durable these wires are. In the future, Neuralink hopes to penetrate the skull using laser beams rather than drills. Such experiments are already underway by neuroscientists at Stanford University. “We hope to apply this [technology] on the first person by the end of next year,” Musk said. And the ultimate goal of a startup is to achieve symbiosis with artificial intelligence.
Neuralink's competitors have already developed the first working neural interface, which has an undeniable advantage - it requires almost no surgical intervention. Non-invasive technology with high-quality interference cancellation will allow paralyzed patients to control mechanisms and robotic prostheses with the power of thought.
Georgy Golovanov
Promotional video: